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A MODERN DREAMER 



A MODERN DREAMER 



BY 

EDMUND MARCH VITTUM 



Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed.^' 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON CHICAGO 






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Copyright 1920 
By EDMUND M. VITTUM 



THE PILGRIM PRESS 
BOSTON 

Auu i J IJ^O 
©CLA576078 



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TO 

MiBB ?Etiu Muvtif JSuppun 

KIN AND KIND, AND KIND, AT WHOSE SUGGESTION 

THESE THOUGHTS WEKE PREPARED 

FOR PUBLICATION 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I Apology 3 

II Where I Might|Find Him 7 

III Near the Master 15 

IV Joy and Pain 25 

V Shepherd and Lamb 33 

VI A Dreamer's Quest 45 

VII The Genesis of Manhood 57 

VIII The First Fruits of Creation .... 63 

IX The Call of the Wide 71 

X One Master, No Slave 81 

XI Canaanizing the Christian 89 

XII Selling the Church * 97 

Xlli The Falling Tower 119 

XIV The City of Dreadful Hunger .... 125 

XV The Three Crosses 131 

XVI Three Heavens 143 

XVII Last First and First Last 151 

XVIII The Naked Soul 163 

XIX The Dream Eternal 169 

XX Niagara by Dream Light 179 

XXI Theophany 185 



APOLOGY 



A MODERN DREAMER 



Chapter I 
APOLOGY 

Is there room for dreams ? The world is 
crowded, but is there not still unoccupied some 
manger for meditation? Is there not in this 
modern life of activity and accomplishment space 
left for a little sentiment, even though it be 
touched with a bit of old-fashioned fancy? Is 
there not some corner in the shadow of the sky- 
scrapers where the Mystic may rest and look be- 
yond the dust and smoke to a far-away estate 
which is neither taxed nor mortgaged nor adver- 
tised? 

Discarded machinery is sold for junk and 
thrown upon the scrap heap. In a western town 
one may often see half a dozen farmers working 
at one of those piles, trying to find odd pieces 
which will enable them, at small expense, to patch 
and mend, and perhaps make their plows and 
planters, their mowers and harvesters, last an- 
other season. When Truth becomes ineffective it 
is "junked," and called facts. You may see 



4 A Modern Dreamer 

philosophers, theologians, scholars, artists, au- 
thors, scientists, kings and politicians working 
at the pile, trying to find something for bolstering 
up their decayed theories, rusting systems, out- 
worn creeds, and exhausted methods, which may 
thus possibly be made to endure another lustrum. 
What are they doing? They will tell you they are 
practicing the Inductive Method, and that it is 
the only way to learn. It is the only way to learn, 
but it is not the only way to live. "What he sees, 
I know,'' said the Philosopher, pitying the Mystic. 
"What he knows, I see," the Mystic responded. 

This age is frankly and aggressively utilitarian. 
We could not change it if we would; and who 
would? But dreams are utilitarian. "Behold the 
Dreamer cometh," which being interpreted means, 
"A brain is unchained." "Where there is no 
vision the people perish." While it is true that 
many visions have not been realized, it is also true 
that nothing great and noble has been accom- 
plished in this world without vision. Young men 
shall see visions, and old men shall dream dreams. 
It is the promise upon which rests the hope of the 
world. 



Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a heaven for.'^ 

— Browning. 



WHERE I MIGHT FIND HIM 



Chapter II 

WHERE I MIGHT FIND HIM 

The Worker was weary. His brain had grown 
sluggish, his tired eyes were irked by little things ; 
he heard a call from the hilltops, and another 
voice, soft and gentle, yet penetrating and com- 
manding, saying, "Come apart into a desert place 
and rest awhile." So he went into the wilderness, 
seeking for a new Dream. At midday he rested 
upon the summit of Sandwich Dome, where the 
sun is bright and the breeze cool, where every 
point of the compass rose reveals a different land- 
scape — each view one of nature's masterpieces. 
There he found his Dream, and thus he told his 
dream. 

I lay upon the green grass among the blossoms 
on a hillside north of Lake Galilee. Lo! the 
winter had passed, the rain was over and gone, 
the flowers appeared upon the earth, the time for 
the singing of birds had come, the voice of the 
turtle-dove was heard in the land. Around me, 
reclining upon the same fragrant couch, were the 
disciples of Jesus whose names are familiar in the 
Gospel story. A gentle southern breeze crept up 



8 A Modern Dreamer 

from the distant desert, and all around was a 
soft haze, bringing that indefinable atmosphere of 
inactivity which leads the man of the Orient to 
spend so much time in the open air, absorbed in 
thoughtless revery. 

But one of the number was restless, and finally 
sprang to his feet exclaiming, "Let us go some- 
where and do something! I cannot remain here 
in idleness, even for the sake of resting. Behold! 
snow-clad Hermon north of us ! Who will come 
with me and climb that lofty mountain?" 

I arose and put my arm around his shoulder as 
I would not have dared to do if he had been John 
the Baptist, as I would not have cared to do had he 
been Paul, much as I admire the great apostle ; and 
I said, "Peter, I love you. You are so human, and 
so much like a modern American. You were born 
before the time of your blood brothers, but you 
have said something that wakes a responsive 
chord. If I have a day without responsibility the 
one thing above all others I love to do is to climb 
a mountain. Come, let us go. Let us strive, and 
let us accomplish." 

Then John arose and said, "I go also." 

So we three made our way up over the steeps 
where the goats feed, through the dark ravines 
where the living springs were cold as ice, along 
the cliffs where the loosed stones rolled down a 



Where t Might Find Him Q 

thousand feet, over the perpendicular rocks where 
our breath came quick and our hearts beat like 
trip-hammers, across the fields of ice and over the 
banks of snow, until at last we stood upon the 
summit of hoary-headed Hermon — ten thousand 
feet above the valley. Before us was the land of 
Israel, — on the left Bashan and Uz and Gilead, 
to the south the thread-like Jordan winding 
through its green valley to the abyss below; and 
across the plain of Esdraelon, to the left of 
Sharon, we caught glimpses of the mountains 
around about Jerusalem. To the west we could 
look right over the towers of Lebanon to what 
seemed like an infinity of purple sea stretching 
beyond the ruins of Tyre and Sidon. All about 
our feet the snow glittered in the sunshine as 
though diamonds had been sown by a careless hand, 
while the heaven above us was bright and beauti- 
ful as the heavens can be bright and beautiful only 
when seen from a mountain top. Then John 
spoke. 

"Peter," he said, "do you remember when we 
were here before with the Master, and He was 
transfigured before us, and we beheld his glory, the 
glory as of the only-begotten of the Father?'' 

"Yes," said Peter, "I remember. We were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty, for He received from the 
Father honor and glory, when there came such a 



10 A Modern Dreamer 

voice to Him from the excellent glory, 'This is my 
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' And this 
voice which came from heaven, we heard when we 
were with Him on this holy mount." 

"And do you remember, Peter," continued 
John, "that you were saying it was a good place 
to abide, right here, and you were talking about 
building a booth or tabernacle for the Lord, when 
the cloud came down and hid it all?" 

"Yes, I remember." 

"And Peter, I am thinking that same thought, 
just now. This is a good place to abide, — up here 
so far above the din and hurry and rush and strife 
of worldly life, so far above earthly sin and human 
selfishness. This snow is white and clean ! It has 
never been trampled by feverishly hurrying feet, 
stained with the blood of unholy conflict, or grimed 
with the mire and dirt which the great, unresting 
sea of human wickedness casts up almost at the 
very thresholds of them that dwell below. Let us 
abide right here; it is so pure and beautiful that 
if God will dwell among men, his dwelling must be 
here. Come, let us find the tabernacle of the Lord, 
or build Him one." 

Just then a cloud descended from above us, not 
a cloud of shadow, but a cloud of light, and out 
of the cloud came a voice, the voice this same John 
heard long ago, when he stood, alone in body and 



Where I Might Find Him 11 

alone in spirit, among the vine-clad mountains of 
Patmos. This was what the voice said : 

"Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and 
He will dwell with them ! Down there is the taber- 
nacle of the Lord ! down there among men ! down 
there where there are people with blind eyes and 
wasted limbs and withered arms and leprous bodies 
and sinful souls ! down there, where the young are 
in the grasp of evil spirits and their parents are 
crying out for help ! down there where your com- 
rades are already struggling against the devil of 
human selfishness, and need your aid! Down 
there ! down there ! The tabernacle of God is with 
men!" 

As the Daydream faded, I seemed to hear voices 
singing — not angel voices, but voices of common 
men and neighborly women and everyday children, 
singing the words of a plain-spoken, true-hearted 
friend. 

**We may not climb the heavenly steeps 
To bring the Lord Christ down: 
In vain we search the lowest deeps^ 
For Him no depths can drown. 

"But warm^ sweety tender, even yet 
A present help is He; 
And faith has still its Olivet, 
And love its Galilee. 



12 A Modem Dreamer 

"The healing of the seamless dress 
Is by our beds of pain: 
We touch Him in life's throng and press, 
And we are whole again. 

"O Lord, and Master of us all! 
Whatever our name and sign, 
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call. 
We test our lives by thine." 



Balkan, sans voir Stamboul, chante son noir salem; 
Sina voit Tinfini, mais non Jerusalem. 

— Victor Hugo, 



NEAR THE MASTER 



Chapter III 
NEAR THE MASTER 

A great crowd surged out of the City among 
the Hills. It was neither pageant nor procession, 
nor people upon pleasure bent. It was a fierce 
mob with harsh tones and cruel voices. Yet it was 
not made up entirely of riff-raff. There were 
well-dressed, smug, self-satisfied men, encourag- 
ing, even inspiring and leading the rabble, — men 
of authority whose eyes gleamed with heartless 
triumph. 

A strong horse was moving slowly amid the 
throng — slowly, but without hesitancy, however 
many people might press near him; for he was 
accustomed to see crowds part and men and women 
stand aside, when he approached. He carried a 
Roman centurion who rode immovable as a bronze 
statue, looking neither to the left nor right. Be- 
hind him a quaternion of soldiers marched, and 
in their midst was the condemned Man, bearing 
the cross upon which He was to suffer. His steps 
were slow and faltering, for He had been buffeted 
and scourged ; but on His face heaven had written 
a wonderful story, yet it was in a language which 
the rabble could not read, so they cried out, 



16 A Modern Dreamer 

"Crucify Him! crucify Him! He saved others, 
himself He cannot save!" 

As these people pushed through the narrow gate 
of the city, a stranger appeared on the outskirts 
of the throng, caught up, as it were, by the mov- 
ing crowd and drawn into the center. His face 
was Jewish, but his dress suggested a distant land. 
Whether he was moved by idle curiosity or gen- 
uine interest, one could not tell; but soon he was 
near the soldiers, gazing earnestly into the face of 
their prisoner. Just then the condemned Man 
stumbled and fell, seemingly unable to carry the 
heavy weight which had been laid upon Him. 
Then the soldiers with coarse laughter seized the 
stranger as the only one within easy reach, and, 
though he was apparently a man of high social 
standing, they commanded him to bear the crossu 
Perhaps he pitied the Condemned; perhaps he 
scorned to object, knowing that resistance would 
be useless. However that might be, — not with 
weakness and fear but with manly strength, — 
he lifted the burden to his own shoulder, and 
marched proudly beside the prisoner, up the hill 
called the Place of the Skull. 

The Dreamer looked again, and saw a company 
of the disciples gathered beneath the olive trees in 
a garden belonging to one of their number, out- 



Near the Master 17 

side the walls of Jerusalem. Years had passed 
since Jesus of Nazareth had been condemned ; and 
though there were faces in the company familiar 
in the days of His earthly ministry, the majority 
of those present had grown to manhood since the 
crucifixion, or at least had learned to believe in 
One whom they had not seen. 

"It is so wonderful," said a young disciple, 
"that you could have seen the Master, the Re- 
deemer, the Immanuel, here on earth. Tell us 
what you mean when you say that He lived with 
you. How near did you come to Him when you 
approached Him, or He approached you?" 

Old people love reminiscences, so one of them 
was prompt to answer. "When the Master was 
on earth," he said, "I joined a great multitude 
that followed Him into a desert place, and when 
we were hungry, He took bread in his own hands 
and blessed it and gave it to his twelve disciples, 
and they gave it to us. It was multiplied in their 
hands so that we all had enough. We ate the 
bread of miracle which He himself had made, 
which his own hands had touched. Truly that 
was coming very near the Master." 

Immediately another spoke: "It is a common 
thing to receive food. Any friend can give us 
bread. But I had distorted limbs, withered arms 
and a palsied body. I lay all day upon a cot, beg- 



18 A Modern Dreamer 

ging for the little needed to prolong my worthless 
life. The Master came near and said, ^Arise and 
walk.' I arose strong and active as Joab. I 
walked like other men, carrying my couch ; I was 
well because I had been close to the Master." 

Near the last speaker sat a brother whose wide 
eyes seemed hungry, as they eagerly sought every- 
thing within their range of vision, — yet there was 
in them a look of satisfaction, like that of one long 
athirst when he puts the cup to his lips. "What 
is thought and motion to one who cannot look 
upon the beauty of God's handiwork?" he de- 
manded. "I was born blind. I had never glimpsed 
or jsensed this," — and he waved his hand about 
him, — "my life was all darkness and gloom and 
emptiness. The Master came to me and touched 
my eyes — He created a new world for me. How 
I reveled in the delicate flowers ! the graceful 
birds ! the waving trees ! the purple hills ! the 
braided brooks ! the rolling sea ! the twinkling 
stars ! the soft moonlight ! and the glorious sun- 
shine! It all meant Master to me. I was very 
near to Him !" 

Then another spoke: "What is beauty to him 
who has no home and no friends? I was an un- 
clean leper ! I could not sleep in a house, I could 
not enter a town, I could not meet my parents, 
my brothers, my wife, my children. After I be- 



Near the Master 19 

came leprous no clean hand touched me until the 
Master came. Then I was made whole, then I 
received health and strength. He was very near 
to me, for He redeemed me from a living death." 

"I was dead," cried another eagerly, "and He 
gave me life ! He was my friend, He loved me. He 
wept as He stood beside my tomb; and His love 
followed me through the grave, and brought my 
spirit back to my body and my body back from 
the sepulchre. To me He said, 'Lazarus, come 
forth!' It was a great mystery of which I dare 
not speak, and it was being very close to Jesus." 

Among the women was one who would be dis- 
tinguished in any company. Though she was long 
past youth, her beauty had not faded, but had 
become noble — almost queenly. Yet there was 
nothing haughty or condescending in her tone as 
she spoke. "Though the Master was the Great 
Physician, there have been other physicians — for 
the body. He only could cure the soul. Whether 
the body be in the grave or out of the grave is 
unimportant, if the soul be lost. I was a lost soul. 
I was beautiful and many professed to love me, but 
no honorable man spoke to me words of friendship. 
No good man — not even a prophet — ^would permit 
me to touch him, — until the Master came. He told 
me that my sins which were many were freely for- 
given. Because I needed more than others I re- 



20 A Modern Dreamer 

ceived more. And I think receiving more brought 
me nearer to the Giver." As she ceased speaking, 
her tears fell like rain, even as when they had laved 
the feet of Jesus. 

Beside her sat another woman whose bent form 
showed traces of heavy years. Her face was still 
beautiful, but there were upon her features marks 
of struggle — the struggle of defeat as well as of 
victory. "Sister Mary Magdalene," she said, "I, 
like you, was a sinful woman. But, unlike you, I 
was not repentant. When men took up stones to 
cast upon me, I thought only of the punishment. 
But the Master sent them all away and said to me, 
^Sin no more.' Then I came to myself. Then I 
knew the horror of sin as something far greater 
than the horror of punishment. I knew it and I 
felt it, because I was very close to the Master." 

After she had finished a familiar voice spoke — 
a voice to which, as was their custom, they all 
listened eagerly. "Beloved, love vaunteth not it- 
self. Yet you must remember that the Master 
chose twelve to be near Him as none others were 
near. I am the only one left you; all the others 
have laid down their lives for their friends. We 
ate, we slept, we walked and talked with Him for 
years. He taught us both earthly things and 
heavenly things. He entered with us into the Holy 
of Holies. On the night before His death, when 



Near the Master 21 

we ate the last supper with Him, in the shadow of 
the crucifixion, He bound us to himself with a 
mystic cord which thought cannot grasp — much 
less words express. Not only was I one of the 
Twelve, but when we reclined at meat, I was that 
disciple whom Jesus loved — I leaned upon His 
bosom — " The apostle of Love paused abruptly 
as the tears began to flow. 

There was a brief silence — then another spoke. 
He was an aged man, weak and palsied, but two 
stalwart sons, one on either side, held his hands 
and looked into his face with honor and affection. 
In a trembling voice he said, "When our Lord was 
led out to be crucified, I bore His cross. As I 
walked by His side with His burden upon my 
shoulder, I felt that I was very near, very near, 
to the Master.'' 

There was a long pause. Gradually every eye 
turned expectantly toward a brother who had 
been silent much longer than was his wont. He 
was one whom the disciples had formerly feared, 
for once he had persecuted the believers. Now he 
had become a mighty preacher of the Gospel and 
a great leader — though he seldom visited Judea. 
He was a man of activity, usually energetic and 
positive, with thoughts that outran language ; but 
just now he was in a quiet frame of mind, and his 



22' A Modern Dreamer 

tired eyes were looking far away to the unseen 
things eternal in the third heaven of his vision. 
"Fellow workers," he said, in a mild, gentle 
voice, "I know not who will sit on the right hand 
of the Master in the Kingdom of Heaven. But 
on earth Simon of Cyrene has come nearer to Him 
than ye all. For remember the words of the Lord 
Jesus how He said, ^It is more blessed to give than 
to receive.' Bear ye one another's burdens and so 
fulfill the law of Christ." 



The Holy Supper is kept indeed 
In whatso we share in another's need; 
Not what we give but what we share^ 
For the gift without the giver is bare; 
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three. 
Himself, his hungry neighbor and me. 

— Lowell. 



JOY AND PAIN 



Chapter IV 
JOY AND PAIN 

This is a dream which has filled the fancies of 
innumerable disciples for many centuries. 

The Dreamer saw the open country, far re- 
moved from the walls of the town. It was night 
in those fields outside Bethlehem, where shepherds 
kept watch over their flocks by night. And there 
shone about those shepherds a Radiance brighter 
and more wonderful than any light ever seen on 
earth before, and the world had never seemed so 
beautiful as it appeared to the eyes of those 
watchers; and there was with them a Heavenly 
Visitor, whose presence was such delightful com- 
panionship as no man had ever known ; his greet- 
ing was "Fear not,'' and his message was Glad 
Tidings, Peace and Good-Will throughout the 
World. To this was added a multitude of the 
Heavenly Hosts, singing such music as no other 
mortal ears had ever heard. Thus began the work 
of Christ on earth : Brilliancy of Brightness which 
eyes had never seen. Blessing such as heart had not 
conceived. Security the earth had never known, 
Love of which poets had not sung. Heaven's own 
Choir filling the land and sky with music of which 



26 A Modern Dreamer 

human imagination had never dreamed; not a 
pain, not a pang, not a fear, not a sorrow, to mar 
the perfect Gladness. 

Thus began the earthly life of Immanuel, God 
with us, the Divine dwelling with the human under 
earthly condition. That vision was God's gift to 
the shepherds; it is God's gift to us, said the 
Dreamer, it is God's lesson, teaching — as He al- 
ways teaches, by action — the nature of that 
process by which the Divine descends to the human 
in lifting the human up to the Divine. 

There came another dream. It is the same God, 
the same lesson, and we are in the same land, but 
now we look inside the walled town. There, all 
is hurry and jostle. Many strangers are in the 
city; camels, donkeys and horses are mingled in 
strange confusion. It was such a sight as the 
Dreamer had seen in real life among Oriental 
people of modern times, yet not so different from 
what we see in our own country, — people eager, 
each for his own advantage, attending to his own 
interests and nothing else, pushing, grasping, 
crushing, if necessary. There is not room enough 
to accommodate all comfortably, so the strong 
will seize, and the weak suffer. 

In a stable lodged a young woman and her hus- 
band. They had been compelled by a law, as un- 



Joy and Pain 27 

yielding and unfeeling as the flinty rock, to leave 
their home just at the time when every instinct of 
comfort and of delicacy and of safety would have 
moved them to remain in domestic quiet. And 
there in the rude surrounding of a Bethlehem 
manger, among the rough cattle and the coarse 
drivers, in weakness and loneliness and home- 
sickness, with no mother, no sister and perhaps 
no womanly companion, no privacy and no com- 
fort, this pure, delicate young wife was enduring 
the pain and travail of her first child-birth. Thus 
began the life of Jesus Christ on earth; thus be- 
gan His work of saving the people from their sins. 
That, too, was God's lesson to the world, and 
God's lesson to the Dreamer. From that, as well 
as from the other picture, we are to learn what 
salvation means ; what it means for Divinity to 
stoop down to dwell with humanity, and for hu- 
manity to struggle upward toward that place 
where God dwells. 



'Teace^ come away; the song of woe 
Is after all an earthly song." 

But it is an earthly song, and the Dreamer saw 
it forcing itself into every form of earthly music. 
He saw that the song was sung by unwilling lips ; 



28 A Modern Dreamer 

that we do not know the worth of woe, we cannot 
analyze the power of sorrow, we do not understand 
the ministry of pain. But it is a part of God's 
ministry. 

The Dreamer saw the Master bearing a Cross, 
and all those that would come after Him taking up 
crosses and following Him. The Dreamer knew 
not what it meant, but he knew it had a meaning 
writ by God's own hand. He saw a dark, cold 
cloud coming between himself and the sun. He 
knew not why the cloud was there, but he knew 
with the faith of certainty that it was God's cloud. 

Is this ministry of pain no other than an earthly 
cloud.'* A thought came to the Dreamer, so sacred 
and so mysterious, that he closed the eyes of his 
imagination lest he profane the Thought by try- 
ing to paint it as a picture. We are told that 
once, at least, during the progress of Christ's 
earthly mission, the toil became so heavy, the 
disappointment so bitter, the sorrow so sore, the 
pain so fierce, and the agony so intense, that there 
was silence in heaven. 

In heaven, God shall wipe away all tears from 
the mourners' eyes. There can be no earthly 
sorrow in heaven. But we may not say that in 
heaven there will not be that which corresponds 
to the fellowship of sorrow, the earthly ministry 



Joy and Pain 29 

of pain. Yet we fear not for our own future, nor 
for those who have outstripped us in this upward 
march to the heights where the eye can behold the 
King in his beauty, and the land that is very far 
off; for Jesus Christ is there. 

"Without Him, Heaven were an arid waste; 
With Him a desert Heaven." 



O me! for why is all around us here 

As if some lesser God had made the world. 

But had not force to shape it as he would. 

Till the High God behold it from beyond. 

And enter it and make it beautiful? 

Or else as if the world were wholly fair. 

But that these eyes of men are dense and dim 

And have not power to see it as it is : 

Perchance, because we see not to the close. 

— Tennyson, 



SHEPHERD AND LAMB 



Chapter V 
SHEPHERD AND LAMB 

When the Dreamer was young, he dreamed of 
other boys. The favorite boy of his fancies was 
also a dreamer, one whose dreams were expressed 
in the music of heart and voice, one who sang of 
the King in his beauty and of the Land that is 
very far off. 

This boy had seven brothers who worked in an 
easy-going way with their father among the olive 
trees and vineyards around Bethlehem; but he, 
the youngest, trailed the sheep far beyond the 
gardens, and orchards, and wheat fields, into the 
open country. He dreamed dreams, but he was 
not an idle dreamer. The rich red blood of activ- 
ity and accomplishment surged through his heart. 
His hair was not black like that of his brothers, 
but tinged with the glow of sunrise, and he looked 
more like the lads that laugh as they glide swiftly 
over the ice in the frozen North, than like the 
naked children who bask in the southern sunshine. 

"How different he is from his brothers," ex- 
claimed a neighbor woman. 

"Yes," replied another, "his great grandmother 
came from the heathen people beyond Jordan. It 



34 A Modern Dreamer 

is the blood of the untamed Moabites, reappearing 
in the fourth and fifth generations. Look at his 
nephews, Zeruiah's boys ! They are more like him 
than like their other uncles, or even their own 
father and mother." 

"Yes," responded the first woman, "but they are 
not handsome like him. And though he is as brave 
and strong as they, he is not so stubborn and rude 
and unreasonable. He is kind and thoughtful for 
others." 

"But his great grandmother was a Moabitess," 
persisted her neighbor, "he will never be like the 
other boys of Bethlehem." 

In the winter when the plentiful rain filled the 
pools, and the grass was green, this boy fed his 
sheep within sight of Bethlehem; but in summer, 
when the hills were dry and the grass was dead, 
he led his flock far out into the wilderness, where 
no other boy dared to go alone, for he knew not 
fear. As he went forth at dawn and returned at 
sunset, he sang to himself — and to the sheep, — 

^^The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy 
coming in,'^ 

Neither was he lonely. The Dreamer never 
lacks companionship. The Voices saluted him, 
though without speech or language, and he an- 



Shepherd and Lamb 36 

swered with his harp. To the majestic mountain 
he sang: 

"/ will lift up mine eyes unto the hills : from whence 

shall my help come? 
My help cometh from the Lordy which made 

heaven and earth.'* 

To the babbling brook he sang: 

**As the hart panteth after the water broolcsy 
So panteth my soul after thee, God.'* 

To the clouds and the rocks, the grass and the 
trees, the birds and all wild creatures that he 
sometimes saw in the wilderness, this was his song : 

^^God watereth the hills from his chambers^ 
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle. 
And herb for the service of man.'* 

*^The trees of the Lord are full of sap. 

The cedars of Lebanon which He hath planted. 
Where the birds make their nests.'' 

**As for the stork, the fir trees are her home. 

The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats. 
And the rocks for the conies." 

As he watched the great eagle, soaring to the 
highest crags where her young were hidden among 
the rocks, his voice sang, as his hand brought 



36 A Modern Dreamer 

forth the deepest and sweetest chords from his 
harp : 

^^He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most 

High 
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.*^ 

Leaving the fold in early morning, he saw the 
glories of the sunrise, and returning at evening, 
the beauty of the stars brightening in the deepen- 
ing twilight. Then he sang: 

^^The heavens declare the glory of God, 
The firmament showeth his handiwork, ^^ 

It was known that fierce beasts of prey some- 
times came up from the jungle along the Jordan 
into the wilderness where the boy fed his sheep in 
summer, but it was not thought probable that one 
of them would attack a shepherd in the daytime. 
So as long as the boy came home at early evening, 
the father, Jesse, had no fear. 

But one hot summer day, as the Shepherd Boy 
sat under a cliif, singing softly to himself: 

"For He shall give his angels charge over thee^ 
To keep thee in all thy ways,^' 

there appeared a huge moving shadow in the sun- 
light near him. He looked up quickly, and saw 
upon the rock a great bear, looking hungrily 
toward the sheep. Just then, on the other side 



Shepherd and Lamb 37 

of the Shepherd Boy, a huge tawny form shot 
through the air, landing among the sheep. It was 
a large lion; and the wicked beast seized a poor 
little lamb in his jaws and ran down the narrow 
valley among the shadows of the steep rocks. 

Quickly the boy grasped his sling and sent a 
stone straight into the face of the bear. The 
great beast snarled with pain, swayed a moment 
as if about to fall, then shambled off among the 
rocks. Grasping his sling, staff and shepherd's 
bag, the brave lad ran down the ravine where the 
lion had disappeared. It was not long before he 
came in sight of the cruel captor with the inno- 
cent prey. It was midday, and the lion lacked 
that self-confidence which he would have felt at 
nightfall, but he was the king of beasts and would 
not be hunted. He turned, dropped the lamb, 
placed one cruel foot upon the prostrate body, 
glared at the boy with blazing eyes, and uttered 
an awful roar which re-echoed among the hills, 
louder than thunder and far more terrifying. 

Quick as thought, the boy thrust his hand into 
his shepherd's bag and brought forth a smooth 
stone which he fitted to his sling. In an instant it 
whizzed through the air and struck midway be- 
tween the eyes of the lion. The majestic beast sank 
upon his belly with a snarl, dazed and half-un- 
conscious. The boy sprang forward and lifted 



38 A Modern Dreamer 

the paw of the lion with his shepherd's crook, 
snatched the crushed and bleeding lamb, and ran 
with it in his arms, up the narrow valley to where 
the frightened sheep were huddled together. 

He seated himself on the green grass and gath- 
ered the trembling lamb tenderly in his arms. The 
poor little creature was bruised in many places, 
and on his head was a bleeding wound where the 
cruel claws of the lion had torn the tender flesh. 
With the jug of water which the shepherd boy 
had brought to drink during the hot noon hours, 
he washed this wound thoroughly, and he poured 
on the oil from his pocket flask which was to have 
been an important part of his own frugal dinner. 

"Now you can rest, little lamb," he said. "Your 
wounds will heal and in a few days you will be 
well and strong again. Now I will lay you upon 
this moist bed of cool, green grass, with your head 
upon my knee ; I will take my harp and sing while 
you listen." 

Because he was a boy with whom the imagina- 
tion of childhood still lingered, he talked to the 
lamb as though they two were boon companions. 
Because he was devout and had the soul of a poet 
and saw his own love for the lamb as a faint re- 
flection of God's love for him, he sang this song: 

^'The Lord is my shepherd. 



Shepherd and Lamb 39 

"Now listen, little lamb. I am going to sing 
of the Good Shepherd who protects me and loves 
me night and day. And as I tell what He does for 
me, you will know what I am trying to do for you ; 
and as you think of what I do for you, you may 
know what the good God is doing for me. 

"/ shall not want. 

"You shall have all you need, little lamb. You 
are so weak and bruised that you cannot get your 
own food in the ordinary way, and you may fear 
starvation. But I will take care of you. I have 
ways of helping lambs which you do not under- 
stand. 

"iJ^ malceth me to lie down in green pastures. 

"Look around upon the hills, little lamb, and 
see them scorched and bare. Look down the 
valley and up the valley and see the grass all dead. 
But here is a little spot of green where the mois- 
ture oozes out of the cliff, which you had not dis- 
covered, but which I knew. Here I have brought 
you that you might lie upon the fresh young grass. 
So I take you to the best places, when you cannot 
find them for yourself. 

^'He leadeth me beside the still waters, 

"It is dry and hot now, little lamb, and the 
brooks have ceased to flow; but I know where there 



40 A Modern Dreamer 

are pools of still water that do not dry up in 
summer, and I will lead you to them that you may 
drink and be refreshed. 

"-ff^ restoreth my soul, 

"Ah! little lamb, your life was almost gone 
when you lay bruised and crushed and torn, under 
the wicked lion's paw. You didn't expect to live 
many minutes, you had given up your life; but I 
brought it back, I restored your soul. 

''He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. 

"That was a wicked way where the hungry lion 
ran down with you in his teeth; but wasn't it a 
happy, a holy path for you and me when you rode 
in my arms? You will always be good and happy, 
little lamb, when I hold you against my breast. 

''For his name's sake, 

"The Name of God means the character of God 
— ^what He is. And because He is what He is, now 
and forever, because He is the Good Shepherd, he 
will always take care of me. It must be so, it 
would be unreasonable for me to doubt it. So, 
little lamb, do not tremble. Because I am your 
shepherd, I shall take care of you. For you to 
fear is foolish. If necessarj^, I will give my life 
for my sheep. 

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death. 



Shepherd and Lamb 41 

"That was a dark valley where you went when 
the lion held you in his teeth. The sun was shining 
overhead, but Death had you in his grip. 

"/ will fear no evil, for thou art with me. 

"You were in the grip of Death, but I was there. 
You could not help yourself, little lamb; it was 
because I was with you that you were delivered. 
Wherever I am, there you are safe. 

^'Thou preparest a table before me, 

"Though you are bruised and cannot get your 
food in the ordinary way, you shall not go hungry, 
little lamb. I drew from one of the goats a cup 
of milk to drink with my own dinner. There it is 
right before you. I am warming it on the heated 
rock in the sunshine, so that it may be just like 
your own mother's milk. You shall take it now; 
I have been preparing it for you. 

"/tj the presence of mine enemies. 

"I would not be surprised, little lamb, if the 
stupid bear and the crazy lion were glaring at us, 
right now, from behind some rock. But they will 
not attack us a second time to-day, now that they 
have failed. So you may eat in safety. 

^^He anointeth my head with oil. 

"I have taken the oil which was a part of my 
own dinner and poured it upon your wound, that 



42 A Modern Dreamer 

it may keep out the dust and poison. It will make 
you well, little lamb. 
"My cup runneth over. 

"You see, little lamb, this cup is so full that 
we cannot move it without spilling. It is all for 
you, and you shall have more if you need it. 

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all 
the days of my life. 

"I will be good to you, I will be merciful to you. 
I will follow you. When you are hungry, when 
you are thirsty, when you are weary, when you are 
in danger, when you are dying, all day long, I 
will follow you. 

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord. 

"Before it grows real dark, little lamb, you and 
I will be in our Father's house where no feverish 
sun can smite us and no wicked lion can reach us. 

"Forever. 

"You and I, little lamb, do not understand that 
word. But our Father knows its meaning. Yes, 
dear Lamb, our Father knows." 



Such ever was Love's way: to rise it stoops. 

Man is not God^ but hath God's end to serve. 

— Browning. 



A DREAMER'S QUEST 



Chapter VI 

A DREAMER'S QUEST 

In a little cluster of date-palms, on a green 
hillside, dwelt Akbah Ben Omar. All around him 
was a thirsty land, in winter bearing a little thin 
grass, in summer shriveling like the neighboring 
desert. Even the spring which fed his little gar- 
den was dry during the hot months ; but the roots 
of the century-old palms seemed to find some 
hidden moisture deep in the earth, so that their 
leaves were always green and their fruit full- 
grown. A few servants, born in his own house, 
watched over his little flock of sheep and goats — 
a little flock, because in summer there was no 
water save that stored in the cisterns. But the 
scanty flocks and the fruitful trees furnished all 
that was needed for his family and his servants. 
And when he sold wool to the merchant or dates 
to the traveler he buried the little pieces of silver 
beneath the Oldest Palm, as his father had done 
before him. Far away across the plain could be 
seen the track along which many traveled, and in 
summer the way was long between the wells of 
water. Sometimes a thirsty traveler, ready to 
perish, would leave the beaten path and seek help 



46 A Modern Dreamer 

beneath Akbah's palms ; and Akbah was not lack- 
ing in hospitality, but from his own scanty store 
he could spare but little, else he and all his would 
die of thirst. So while he might occasionally re- 
lieve one unfortunate, he must sit beneath his palm 
when the sun was hottest and gaze out toward the 
purple horizon, through the shadowy forms which 
seemed to dance in the heated air, and watch the 
great procession of thirsty, feverish men and 
beasts pass by unaided. 

Five generations before him had sat beneath the 
trees on that moist hillside; and each one had 
looked upon the long processions of thirsty trav- 
elers, and then had gazed up at the heavens ; for 
each had studied the stars, and each had left a 
great roll of parchment upon which was recorded 
the results of many nights spent in watching the 
wanderers of the sky; but no one of them had 
learned what is really the meaning of the stars. 

Akbah had studied the heavens most carefully 
of all; he had covered more parchment than his 
five ancestors with the result of his observations. 
But the great question still remained unanswered : 
What do the stars mean? What have they to do 
with the thirsty men who drag over the desert, 
the mysterious spirits of air, wind, water and fire, 
and the Great All-embracing Fatherhood? And 
as old age came creeping slowly upon him, he 



A Dreamer^s Quest 47 

prayed to the All-Fatherhood that a son might be 
given to continue the same studies for the Seventh 
Generation. 

And there came to his house one day, a very 
aged man toiling under the weight of thoughtful 
years. And, as Akbah gave the venerable trav- 
eler food and drink, he saw in the piercing eye that 
mysterious light from the Unknown World which 
comes to some men of Wisdom and Virtue when 
earthly things begin to fade. 

"Akbah ben Omar ben Achmet ben Omar," the 
old man said, "you are the sixth of your line — 
the sixth life that has been given on this spot to 
the study of the stars. You are disappointed ; but 
be not disheartened ; your labors have not been un- 
fruitful. Your prayers to the Great All-Father- 
hood shall be answered. You shall have a son; 
and if your son will prove himself worthy, he shall 
learn the Lesson of the Stars." The seer went on 
his way. And a son was born to Akbah in his 
old age. Though he did not live to see Yussuf, 
his son, grown into manhood, he did live long 
enough to teach the boy all he knew of the stars, 
to show him how to study the records of six 
generations, to reveal the secret of the little hoard 
of silver beneath the Oldest Palm, to give him a 
roll of blank parchment, and to tell him that the 
Seventh Generation must learn the Great Lesson, 



48 A Modern Dreamer 

or the labor of the Seven Generations would come 
to naught. 

Many long and weary days did Yussuf Ben 
Akbah con with blinding eyesight the records of 
six generations; and many long and peaceful 
nights did he gaze upon the Mystery of the Stars 
— the stars which must be a part of the Great 
All-Fatherhood; and yet must have something to 
do with thirsty Man and watching Spirit. Yet 
nothing did he learn. If the records of six gen- 
erations did not teach the lesson, what use to add 
a seventh! If he wrote upon his parchment it 
would be but repetition of what had been written 
before. 

But one day the aged Seer came again to the 
grove of palms ; his steps were tottering, his voice 
was weak, his eyes were dimmer to behold earthly 
things, but brighter in them was that gleam of 
the Faraway and the Unseen. "My son," he said, 
"six generations have failed to learn the Lesson of 
the Stars because they have studied only the stars 
of the night. The Seventh shall learn the lesson 
by studying the Stars of the Day. The lesson 
must be learned when the flocks are feeding, and 
the shepherds watchful, and the merchants hurry- 
ing across the desert." 

Then Yussuf Ben Akbah searched the sky when 
the sun was shining clear. But after many days 



A Dreamer^s Quest 49 

the parchment roll was still a blank, for he could 
find no Stars of the Day whose movements he 
could record. 

After a few more years the aged Seer came 
once again to the little grove of palms. His form 
was wasted to a shadow and his eyes saw nothing 
but the Unseen. 

"This is the last time," he said, "that I shall 
visit this home — -the last time my hand shall touch 
the recording rolls of six generations. I have one 
final message for you. You seek the Stars of the 
Day. Look downward; the Lesson of the Great 
All-Fatherhood is written in the earth more 
clearly than in the heavens. Go to the little valley 
just at the bottom of the moist hillside and dig 
deep into the earth and you shall find a Star of 
the Day. You shall look upon it while the flocks 
feed and the shepherds are watchful, and the mer- 
chants hurry across the desert. Then, perchance, 
you shall learn the Lesson. This is the prophecy ; 
be faithful, be patient, follow the teachings of 
Wisdom even when you cannot see the end ; or the 
labors of Seven Generations will go for naught." 

So Yussuf went down into the valley and began 
his task. The servants born in his own home were 
not equal to the labor, so he took the silver from 
beneath the Oldest Palm and hired men to cut a 
small passage deep into the earth. 



50 A Modern Dreamer 

But soon the workmen began to murmur. Their 
fathers had never done thus. They knew not 
what terrible calamity might come upon them 
should they break through the earth upon which 
their ancestors had trodden secure. Two of 
them consented, however, for a great price, to 
stand above and draw up the buckets of clay, but 
down in the earth, Yussuf toiled alone. 

Sometimes he feared, sometimes he faltered, 
sometimes his heart was too weary and his body 
too weak for the labor. And then he would mur- 
mur to himself, "I will be patient ; I will be faith- 
ful ; I will follow Wisdom though I cannot see the 
end." And he labored long years until his hands 
were hard, and his shoulders bowed, and his body 
pierced with rheumatic pains, and in his girdle 
was the last piece of silver. 

Thus he was toiling one summer day; and as 
he thrust down his spade with feeble stroke, it 
broke through the hard clay and grated upon a 
coarse, clean sand. He stooped down and gath- 
ered a handful ; it was wet like the sand of a river. 
And as he mused upon the wonder, he felt the 
cold water rising about his feet. Looking down 
again, he saw something glitter like a jewel. 
Could it be the Star? His eager hand grasped for 
it, but found only a reflection — reflection of what ? 
Looking up he saw a star in the blue sky above. 



A Dreamer^s Quest 51 

He had never known before that from the bottom 
of a deep pit stars may be seen in the daytime. 

He had found the Star of the Day — not in the 
earth as he had expected, but by digging in 
the earth he had found a place from which he 
might observe the Star. Now could he read the 
Lesson? But the excitement of the moment and 
the chill of the water about his ankles made him 
tremble so that he could not control his thoughts. 
It would be best to go to his home and rest, and 
return in the morning and gaze again at the Star 
of Day. Great was his surprise on the morrow 
to find that the water had risen to the very mouth 
of the pit, and that a tiny stream was running 
down the valley many cubits before it was swal- 
lowed by the thirsty soil. He sat upon a heap of 
earth and wept bitter tears. The labor of his life 
had been in vain. He had not strength enough 
to dig down deep into the earth again, nor had he 
silver left to pay workmen. He had followed the 
teaching of the Seer, he had found the Star of 
Day, but the Lesson of the Star he had not 
learned. 

But w'hile he wept, he heard footsteps, and 
looking up he saw a man leading a camel upon 
which were a woman and children. All looked 
weary ; their eyes were dull and their lips chapped 



52 A Modern Dreamer 

by the hot wind that was already blowing from 
the desert. 

"May we drink from your well?'' said the 
stranger. 

"Freely ! Freely — in the name of the Great All- 
Fatherhood!" quickly answered Yussuf. "This 
water comes from the Star of the Day." 

"I know not what you mean," responded the 
wayfarer, "but this is the coolest, purest water I 
have ever drunk, and we go on our way with new 
life." And as he spoke, the glow of that new life 
shone in their faces. 

Yussuf was comforted. He sat all day beneath 
the palms on the hillside and looked out across the 
thirsty land and saw the purple haze where the 
desert blended with the sky, and the shadow forms 
that seem to dance in the heated air. And he saw 
many weary and thirsty travelers turn aside from 
the beaten track to drink out of the new well the 
Water from the Star of Day — the coolest, purest 
they had ever tasted. And as Yussuf saw fresh 
life and strength pictured in their faces, a great 
peace and a new joy filled his heart. And as he 
closed his eyes in sleep that night he murmured a 
prayer of thanks to the Great All-Fatherhood. 
"I have learned," he said, "the Lesson of the 
Stars." 

So it was for the space left him among the Palm 



A Dreamer's Quest 53 

trees. He saw the travelers drink; he saw man 
and beast refreshed day by day, year by year. 
Finally, with trembling hand of age he wrote these 
words upon the parchment his father had left him. 
"I am the Seventh Generation. I inherited sil- 
ver and books, and a roll of parchment. I have 
expended the treasure, and I can write upon this 
parchment nothing but a repetition of what has 
been written before. I am weak and worn with 
toil ; but I have learned the Lesson of the Stars — 
what they mean to thirsty men and helpful spirits 
in the World of the Great All-Fatherhood." 



I clutched at stars^ I could not reach, — 
I plucked the daisies by the way ; 

A vision flamed, I could not preach, — 
I knelt in prayer the livelong day. 

Gifts were required, I had no gold, — 

I consecrated feet and hands ; 
I brought men cups of water cold 

Unthanked, — the Master understands. 

—E, M, V, 



THE GENESIS OF MANHOOD 



Chapter VII 
THE GENESIS OF MANHOOD 

The Dreamer sees one of his ancestors, a huge, 
hairy man, coming out of a cave in which he 
dwells. He is untamed and undisciplined. The 
underbrush and even the small trees bend before 
him. His strength is his title deed to anything he 
wants ; his crown of authority covers all that he 
can conquer. His passion is the inheritance of a 
thousand generations; it is not something to be 
mastered, but the master motive of action, — each 
moment, a guide to resolve and accomplishment. 
Each appetite is not something to be restrained 
and directed, but something to be gratified, re- 
gardless of obstacles. 

As this man of mighty muscle tears his way 
through the forest, he is hungry, — hungry with a 
hunger that a civilized man never knew, — a hun- 
ger with which the man of morality and conscience 
never wrestled. Then he meets another who has 
been hunting food in the forest and who, after 
long struggle, has obtained what he needs ; and who 
is smaller and weaker and unable to defend him- 
self. The hungry giant glares at the smaller man 
with eyes like bursting shrapnel. Every inch of 



68 A Modern Dreamer 

his body, strong and healthy like the growing oak, 
cries out for food. The ape that is within him 
whispers, "There is no such thing as right and 
wrong, honesty or honor." The serpent that is 
within him hisses, "Be your own god and make 
your own laws to fit your own desires and your 
own power." The wolf that is within him howls 
for blood. Every muscle is tense and every nerve 
a-quiver with eagerness for the conflict. Shall he 
overthrow the weaker man, take what his hungry 
fierceness craves and gratify his natural desires? 
Or shall he master his spirit, quell his passions, 
crush down his hunger, gird up his loins like a 
man, go out into the forest and win what he needs 
by his own honest endeavor? 

He who answered that question rightly under 
those circumstances contributed more to the ad- 
vancement of human life and the uplifting of 
human lives than has been accomplished by all 
the wars of history, since the man of wrath and 
ruthlessness brandished his first spear, fashioned 
his first arrow, and first shed his brother's blood. 
• ••••••• 

There was another scene in this dream. 

This man of the mighty muscle and the puissant 
passion is returning from the chase and nearing 
his own abode. He has been successful. He has 
what he needs and it is all his own. No person on 



The Genesis of Manhood 59 

earth has the shadow of a claim to the food, the 
rich spoil of honest struggle, which he has upon 
his shoulder. As he approaches his cave, he sees 
one who has been unsuccessful, and has fallen 
among the thorns, weak and fainting for lack of 
nourishment. 

The savage giant pauses a moment and looks 
down upon the one who has failed. Shall he keep 
for himself alone that which is his, — which he has 
won by toil and danger — and leave the hungry 
man to die ? Or shall he share with the needy, with 
the one who is otherwise likely to perish.^ 

He who under those circumstances answered 
that question aright did more for promoting the 
regnancy of peace and righteousness on earth — 
which is the Kingdom of God — more for promot- 
ing the Divine Life among human habitants, than 
has been accomplished by all the learning and art 
and industry of the world since the early savage 
built his first fire, carved his first bone, and 
wrought his first stone axe. 

The birth of a man is more than any birthday, 
for without birth he could never attain to his 
majority. The Birth of Manhood is greater than 
any subsequent attainment. It is the first mile 
on the road of Eternal Life, along which, some 
day, will march the whole human race — they will 



60 A Modern Dreamer 

march because somewhere, sometime, somebody 
led the way. 

The present generation has dreamed such a 
wonder as the world never imagined before — the 
dream of a man who started with nothing and 
won a thousand million dollars. And it is said 
that perhaps such a dream has now become a 
reality. 

What then? Does the world need a greater 
man who will accumulate and hold a thousand 
billions ? No ! the world needs — God needs — men 
who will rise above the ingathering level of the 
brute to the outpouring level of the Divine. 



He who did most, shall bear most ; the strongest shall 

stand the most weak. 
'Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for ! my flesh, 

that I seek 
In the Godhead! I seek and I find it. 

— Browning, 



THE FIRST FRUITS OF CREATION 



Chapter VIII 
THE FIRST FRUITS OF CREATION 

A little tree forced its roots into the flinty soil 
of the much trodden pasture. The Dreamer 
watched its struggles and it had but poor oppor- 
tunity for growth^ for the cattle cropped its 
twigs from the ends of its little branches, and as 
it developed it became humpbacked and round- 
shouldered like a dwarf among men. In the course 
of time it developed sharp, rough little stubs of 
branches, like large thorns, as if in self-defense. 

"It has borne fruit," said the Dreamer, "not 
fruit pleasant for the world outside, but such as 
it needed for its own protection." 

As the years went by the tree adapted itself 
more fully to its surroundings. The roots grew 
stronger, pushed themselves through the stony 
soil and found the nourishment needed. It rose 
above the daily rapine of the cattle and the crush- 
ing weight of the wintry snow, and spread its 
vigorous branches to the warm embrace of the 
life-breathing sunlight. The Dreamer passed it 
in early summer, and saw it covered with fresh, 
green leaves; a bird had built a nest within the 



64 A Modern Dreamer 

covert, and the cattle, during the heat of the day, 
sought its grateful shade. 

The Dreamer said, "The thorns were not the 
real fruit of the tree, it was made to bear leaves ; 
now it is productive." 

The summer waned, the air grew chill. Then 
the leaves of the tree took on bright tints of many 
colors, and it became far more beautiful than it 
had been in Summer. 

The Dreamer said, "I was wrong: green leaves 
were but a preparation for this richer beauty. 
We see now the true fruit of the tree.'' 

Spring came again, and on one bright Sabbath 
which the Church called White Sunday, when 
country maidens went to Church clad in their 
new white robes, the tree, also, put on new gar- 
ments. The Dreamer saw that it had clothed it- 
self with beautiful sweet blossoms. The busy bees 
came for many miles to taste its nectar, the prodi- 
gal petals covered the needy earth, and the sweet 
odor overloaded the neighboring air with their 
fragrance. 

"Ah! I was wrong," said the Dreamer, "this 
tree had all the while a destiny far above the pro- 
duction of leaves, even leaves of gorgeous colors. 
It was made to bear blossoms. All that came be- 
fore was incidental. The tree has borne fruit at 
last." 



The First Fruits of Creation 65 

But summer came bringing life, and then heat, 
and then a cool breath which the swallows knew, 
for they gathered upon the barns in multitudes, 
preparing for their autumn pilgrimage. The 
nights were keen and cool, but at midday the soft 
warm weight of Indian Summer was pressed gently 
upon the brow of men as well as upon the plants 
of the field; a dreamy haze veiled the distant 
mountains, and children sang the Harvest Home; 
then there fell from the tree the rich, ripe fruit, 
the keen joy of all that tasted, and a rich promise 
for many years to come. 

The Dreamer said, "I see at last the Destiny of 
the Tree. This is indeed its fruit." 

In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth, and the earth was without form and 
void. But gradually blind Chaos passed. The 
waters and the clouds were parted, and dry land 
appeared. God saw that it was good, but rock 
and clay, without life and growth, were not the 
real fruit of Creation. 

Then came green grass, fragrant flowers, 
majestic trees, — all good but not in a full sense 
the fruit of Creation. 

After another brooding period there came crea- 
tures with a higher life, the life which meant sensa- 



66 A Modern Dreamer 

tion, movement, memory, love and joy. These 
were good, but not the Good. 

Last of all came man, created in the divine 
image. This man subjected the teeming earth, 
cultivated the fruitful land, built these mighty 
cities, bridged the rushing rivers, and rode upon 
the majestic Sea. The beauty of his Art, the 
power of his Skill, the glory of his Accomplish- 
ment were so great that it seemed as though he 
must be the fruit of Creation. But this fruit was 
not without blemish. The blood of the murdered 
brother cried from the ground. The groans of 
the poor and oppressed were often heard near the 
seats of the mighty. In the temples of dazzling 
beauty degrading abominations were practiced. 
Men waged cruel war against their fellowmen, 
bringing into the conflict all the destructive 
machinery their trained intellects could invent 
for the crushing of hostile nations. 

By and by Jesus Christ came into the world. 
He said man should be born anew, man should 
have another and better life, begotten by the 
Spirit, and made free from sin. One of those who 
had received this new life from the Saviour said 
in regard to it, 

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of 
truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of 
his creatures." 



The First Fruits of Creation 67 

Can this mean that while all the works of God's 
Creation are good, the first fruit of them all did 
not appear until the first soul was redeemed and 
purified by Divine Power, and made a New Crea- 
ture in Christ Jesus? 

Such was the Dream. The Dreamer dare not 
say that the Dream is all true, but he can say that 
thus he dreamed. 



A fire mist and a planet^ 

A crystal and a shell, 
A jellyfish and saurian. 

And a cave where the cave men dwell ; 
Then a sense of law and beauty, 

A face turned from the sod; 
Some call it Evolution, 

But others call it God. 

— Carruth, 



THE CALL OF THE WIDE 



Chapter IX 
THE CALL OF THE WIDE 

The Dreamer saw a controversy in the early 
Church. Can the Gentiles become Christians ? Of 
course, if they will accej)t the Jewish system, be 
circumcised and observe the Law of Moses. But 
how about just common pagan Greeks.? At this 
question the wise apostles shook their heads doubt- 
fully. 

But there was one apostle who had a wide 
vision. He was full of earnestness, he labored 
more than all the others; he was mighty in will 
power, yet he was master of diplomacy. He in- 
sisted that the believers should hear what God 
had done for Gentiles outside the Law, how the 
Holy Spirit had visited the repentant, until there 
was neither Jew, Samaritan, or Greek, bond or 
free, but all one in Jesus Christ. 

That settled the matter for a while, but the old 
trouble appeared again and again. It was plain 
to the Jewish Christian that God had designed 
to save the world through the Jewish nation. 
That was the original promise to Abraham, "In 
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
blessed." The Jews had the oracles of many 



72 A Modern Dreamer 

generations. Jesus was a Jew, so were the Twelve 
Apostles. It was unquestionably evident that God 
had planned for the conversion of the Jews first 
— at least, the Jews as a people — then to let 
them fulfill their designed mission, perform their 
divinely appointed work, by bringing all the other 
nations into the Kingdom. In the meantime, the 
Jewish disciples should remember their obligation 
under the Law, and not mingle socially with the 
uncircumcised. ''We must keep ourselves clean." 

"Yes,'' said Simon, named the Rock. "God 
showed me in a vision that what He had cleansed 
should not be called common or unclean, but this 
does not mean that I am to sit down and eat with 
Gentiles, even though they have become disciples." 

But there was the same mighty Paul, withstand- 
ing Simon Peter to his face. "You are to be 
blamed," he said. And he swept away tradition 
and prejudice and argument. 

"'Lo 1" he said, "we turn to the Gentiles," and 
the Gentiles turned to the Lord. 

Paul preached to the Greeks — the Greeks of 
Asia and the Greeks of old Hellas, and they gladly 
received the Word. When they came to under- 
stand the meaning of the Gospel, they were struck 
with the thought of God's wonderful wisdom in 
bringing the Truth to them, the first among the 



The Call of the Wide 73 

Nations. The Greeks were the best talkers in the 
world; they were philosophers, and could explain 
the metaphysics of Theology ; their language was 
the language of literature and learning through- 
out the known world; they were the best pre- 
pared to become religious teachers. It seemed 
clear to them that the great work before the 
Church was to Christianize the Greeks, who would 
preach the Gospel to the other nations. 

But again the great Paul stood up among them, 
and he looked clear through all this shallow 
sophistry, for he saw the mind of the Master. 

"I must see Rome !" he said. 

There were heathen enough at home. At every 
step he met a pagan; every public building was 
crowned with images, and every home furnished 
with idols and idolons. In the city of Athens, 
they said, it was easier to meet a god than a man. 
There was work enough for all the preachers and 
teachers and elders to bring the Greeks into the 
Kingdom. But Paul had the vision of a prophet ; 
he looked far away across the sea to an imperial 
country as distant in time, toil and danger as 
China is from America at the present day, and 
his voice had in it the ring of destiny, as he cried, 

"I must see Rome!" 

Paul preached in Rome. Soon he had a notable 



74 A Modern Dreamer 

following. There were the poor who heard Christ 
gladly, and also men and women of wealth and 
power — even some of Csesar's household. The 
leadings of Providence were plain. The Romans 
were the rulers of the world; their Law was a 
standard for the nations ; their roads opened com- 
munication through countries previously un- 
known ; the claim, "I am a Roman Citizen," was a 
protection from violence and wrong, according 
to Cicero, even in the "remotest regions." The 
Roman wherever he went carried in his person a 
dignity and influence and authority unmatched 
by other people. Obviously the Church should 
spend all its energy in the conversion of the 
Romans, for when this were accomplished the rest 
of the world would fall into her arms like ripe fruit. 
Again there appeared the great leader Paul, the 
one man who could look beyond the present in 
space and time. He had grown older, and his 
Vision of God's World had grown larger. He 
could see multitudes of strange people — strange 
in face, form, dress, language, customs and sur- 
roundings, a vast multitude out of every kindred 
and tongue and people and nation. He could not 
wait for the haughty Romans who were but a 
handful, after all, among the hoard of people 
clamoring for salvation. He looked towards the 
barbarians, — the unshaven, the crude and coarse 



The Call of the Wide 75 

and ignorant, born in the Divine Image and re- 
deemed by the Divine Sacrifice. 

"I take my journey into Spain," he said. "I 
will come by and call upon my Roman friends as 
I pass, but my great objective is the land of the 
barbarian. 

"I take my journey into Spain !" 

There was a little island called Britain among 
the dark clouds and chilly mists of the Northern 
Sea, pushed off, as it were, from the northeast 
corner of Europe, like a child thrust out of a 
father's house. Neither Jew nor Greek nor 
Roman thought of that island as being a country 
of supreme importance in the conversion of the 
world. But by and by, the missionary activity 
of the early Church reached even that remote 
region, and the Britons became Christians. Then 
came pagan Saxons from the east and thrust out 
the owners of the land, who fled to the western 
coast, to the northern Highlands, or across the 
Sea to Hibernia. The cautious ones said, "We 
must conserve all our religious resources for work 
among ourselves and our own children, lest we lose 
entirely the faith that is in us, and go back to 
heathenism, — the only religion known to the peo- 
ple of the heather, who creep about in the under- 
brush and dig for roots and nuts." 



76 A Modern Dreamer 

But there were others in whose enlarged hearts 
was the Spirit of Jesus. They said, "Those 
wicked people who have burned our houses, driven 
us from our fields, and robbed us of our country, 
are God's children and we must tell them of Him 
who saves the people from their sins." 

So they went to their enemies — our ancestors — 
and told them about the love of Jesus, and the 
Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men. They 
worked their way down toward the south, till they 
met the missionaries of Rome coming northward. 
Then the Saxons had become Christians. To-day 
those people that speak the modern form of the 
Old Saxon Tongue are the greatest of Christian 
missionaries and they print and circulate two- 
thirds of the world's Bibles. And the Dreamer 
saw them in the hour of the World's Great Crisis, 
with the eagerness of conviction and the joy of 
service, driving back the invading hoards of 
tyranny, and bestowing upon all nations the bless- 
ings of freedom, justice and peace. 

After the Dreamer had seen these shadows of 
olden days, he looked upon another Dream which 
was more than a dream. He saw among the mod- 
ern disciples of our Lord those who continue to 
utter the discordant heresy that there are heathen 
enough at home. We need all our resources for 



The Call of the Wide 77 

our own work. It is evident that God has ap- 
pointed us to be the people of destiny, to redeem 
the world; and so we must give all our strength 
and all our energy to the saving of our own 
People, our own Land, our own Neighborhood, 
and thus prepare for the salvation of the world. 

In the midst of all this false profession of 
Christ-likeness there came another voice. Some- 
times it was a still, small Voice that only he could 
hear whose soul was in close union with the Divine. 
Sometimes it was a Voice like the sound of many 
waters, but only he could interpret whose heart 
was beating in harmony with the great Heart, the 
Divine Heart, of the Master. But always it was 
the voice of final authority which discords may 
devour and falsehoods confuse, but which ex- 
presses commands and promises that will remain 
unchanged as long as the mountains endure. 

"Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel 
to every creature, and lo ! I am with you always." 



Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto. 

— Chermes. 
By all ye cry or whisper^ 

By all ye leave or do^ 
The silent, sullen peoples 

Shall weigh your Gods and you. 

— Kipling, 



ONE MASTER, NO SLAVE 



Chapter X 
ONE MASTER, NO SLAVE 

The word Rome is a dream of power — power 
unyielding, unflinching, unpitying; power not al- 
ways cruel, but never recognizing any right save 
itself, and never hesitating to crush the weak. 

But other facts and forces save the Spirit of 
Rome mingle in our dream of Roman Days. 
When Rome was at the height of her resistless 
power, when her eagles were in Britain and in 
Africa, at the Pillars of Hercules and on the 
Oriental desert, — then the Teaching of Jesus in- 
vaded the Capitol. 

There were people in the Eternal City weary 
of blood and pillage, of oppression and tyranny, 
of hate and conquest ; and among the weary ones 
were the powerful and the poor, the opulent as well 
as the obscure, the mean and the majestic. The 
Law of Love entered many hearts among the high 
and the humble, the arrogant and the lowly. 
Wherever it entered, it wrought the world's great 
miracle, — a soul was born again. 

At first the proud pagan and the haughty in- 
fidel would not take the trouble even to scorn the 
followers of the Nazarene. All religions were the 



82 A Modern Dreamer 

same, they said, all worthless — save to the poor 
and ignorant. "What is truth?" sneered Pilate, 
and went out. 

But soon they were startled by the rapid spread 
of the new faith, by its unflinching tenacity and 
self-propagating power. Worship in the name of 
Jesus was forbidden, and the rabble shouted, "The 
Christians to the lions." Men were scourged, 
women ill-treated, and the blood of the martyrs 
stained the Colosseum. They were troubled on 
every side, perplexed, but not in despair; perse- 
cuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
stroyed; always bearing about in the body the 
dying of the Lord Jesus. 

At that time in the soft rock upon which Rome 
was built, the Christians cut out those secret pas- 
sageways, dens of hiding, and chambers for wor- 
ship, which we call the catacombs. There they 
fled in times of special danger, there they met for 
prayer and fellowship, there they buried their 
dead. They walked about the streets of Rome as 
strangers one to another, never daring to call a 
fellow disciple by the sweet name of brother. But 
beneath the earth, in their rock-hewn chapels, 
they were one in the fellowship of a common 
Master. 

In the Dream there appeared a proud and 
wealthy Roman walking with masterful step 



One Master, No Slave 83 

among those that bowed in humility before him. 
But there was true nobility in his manly soul, and 
the words of Jesus went straight to his honest 
heart. He was interested, he was moved to 
thoughtfulness, — at length he found two Christian 
disciples who braved the danger of betrayal that 
they might save a soul from death and hide a 
multitude of sins. They taught him the word of 
God, and answered his eager question, "What 
shall I do to be saved?" 

For a long time they were unwilling to reveal 
to their high-born convert the names of other 
disciples, but at last they were sufficiently assured 
of his devotion to trust him with all their secrets. 
And the night came when he could go with them 
to the secret chapel beneath the protecting earth, 
where he might meet his fellow Christians, receive 
from them the sign of purification in baptism, 
share with them the Bread of Sacrament, drink 
from the Cup of the New Covenant, and remember 
the Dying Love of the Undying Lord. 

When he came to the place of assembly there 
were many surprises awaiting him. He found 
some of his near neighbors there, one bosom friend 
whom he had never suspected of being a Nazarene. 
He almost gasped for breath when he saw one high 
in authority, respected and obeyed wherever the 
Roman army marched, now bowing in meekness 



84 A Modern Dreamer 

before Him who was worshiped, not in art or idol, 
but in Spirit and in Truth. He met, too, one 
whom he had long accounted a bitter enemy ; they 
clasped hands, weeping friendly tears of holy joy. 
But the great surprise of all came when he 
entered the little Chapel, cut out of the solid 
rock. There he found, seated in the place of 
honor, presiding at the meeting, ready to admin- 
ister baptism and give to him the hand of fellow- 
ship, and offer him the Tokens of his First Com- 
munion, — one of his own slaves ! 

The shadowy forms of those Early Disciples 
slowly vanished from sight, but through the an- 
cient Catacombs the Dreamer seemed to hear the 
echoing chords of music, as if the Choir Invisible 
was singing, — 

"Truly He taught us to love one another. 

His law is love and his gospel is peace ; 

Chains shall He breaks for the slave is now our 

brother. 
And in his Name all oppression shall cease." 

The Dream of Love faded, and others forced 
their way into the Chamber of Vision, like seven 
evil spirits into a house swept and garnished. 
There was rioting in the streets of Rome. Savage 



One Master, No Slave 85 

invaders broke down her walls, swarmed through 
her temples and dashed in pieces her priceless 
statues. 

Then Christian fought against Christian. 
There were dungeons and racks and fagot piles. 
As the pagans had persecuted him who confessed 
Christ, now the Christians persecuted him who 
confessed in what they considered the words of 
heresy — while the sick suffered unattended, and 
the poor died for lack of bread. 

Later, the fires of hatred blazed over all 
the earth. Nations called Christian, drunk with 
the lust of conquest and dominion, crazed with the 
madness of imagined superiority, tore at one an- 
other's bosoms, each trying to reach the heart of 
an opposing nation, calling to their aid the most 
skilful and most deadly inventions of Science. 

And after this conflagration of a bedlamized 
world had burned itself out, the Dreamer saw 
Righteousness and Peace kiss one another ; he saw 
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, not in word, 
neither in tongue only, but in deed and in truth; 
he saw Love of Comrades, the Helpfulness of 
Strangers, the Friendship of Nations, the Fellow- 
ship of Race; a New Heaven and a New Earth 
wherein dwelleth Righteousness ; he saw a world 
with one Master, even Christ, and no slave, no 
tyrant, no victim, a world where Love is the ful- 



86 A Modern Dreamer 

filling of the Law. For the earth shall be filled 
with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord, as 
the waters cover the sea. 



The tree of Faith its bare^ dry boughs must shed. 
That nearer heaven the living ones may climb. 

— Whittier. 



CANAANIZING THE CHRISTIAN 



Chapter XI 
CANAANIZING THE CHRISTIAN 

The Dreamer heard the voice of the stern old 
Hebrew prophet, whose eyes saw fantastic visions 
and whose lips spoke strange imagery. This was 
his cry: 

"Israel has become Canaan !" 

The Dreamer looked in the record as trans- 
lated in our common Bible, and found the word 
"Merchant." In the Revised Version it is 
"Trafficker," but in the old Hebrew it reads 
"Canaan." Ephraim and Judah, that is Israel, 
had become Canaan. And the prophet added, 
"The balances of deceit are in his hand." 

This is the dream of Canaan — it is not so much 
a dream as the ghost of a vanished reality. 

There were people, wonderful people, living 
upon a narrow strip of country between the 
Mountains of Lebanon and the Great Sea, and on 
a little island near the coast. In the days when 
what men called the World was wrapped like a 
girdle about the Mediterranean Sea, these people 
built and sailed the first merchant ships upon its 
waters. They invented, they manufactured, they 



90 A Modern Dreamer 

bought and sold, they established colonies, they 
dominated inferior people. They were sometimes 
accused of dishonesty in their dealing, the balances 
of deceit were often in their hands, but they ac- 
complished wonderful things, considering their 
age and surroundings. The more active they 
became, the more they admired activity. The 
more they accomplished, the more they loved ac- 
complishment. The richer they grew, the more 
they worshiped riches. The more they dominated, 
the more they idolized domination. "The balances 
of deceit are in his hand," said the prophet, "he 
loves to oppress." Their great cities were Tyre 
on the Island and Sidon by the Sea. In history 
they are called Tyrians ; but the people of Israel 
called them Canaanites. And Israel became 
Canaan. 

This is the Dream of Israel: 

They, too, were wonderful ; God chose them to 
be — or rather to become — his own people. "In 
thy seed," He said, "shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed." He chose them to become the 
intellectual teachers, the moral guides, the re- 
ligious leaders of the world. Instead of following 
that high destiny, they fell in love with material 
and industrial prosperity. They became the mer- 
chants, traders, financiers, money-men of the 



Canaanizing the Christian 91 

world. They were accused by the prophet of dis- 
honest dealing, of carrying the balances of deceit 
in their hands. This they denied; they said, 
"Surely I am become rich, I have found wealth; 
in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity." 
This, however, they did not deny, that their 
accomplishments had ceased to be great in spir- 
itual things, and that they had realized financial 
prosperity instead. Called to be a spiritual and 
moral blessing in the world, they had become 
traffickers, brokers, bankers, money-men. They 
had ceased to be Israel mighty with God, and had 
become Canaan, master of gold. Israel had be- 
come Canaan. 

This is the Dream of the Modern World : 
We were called by Jesus Christ to be ambassa- 
dors for Him, to beseech men in his stead and in 
his name to be reconciled to God. Jesus said, "Ye 
cannot serve God and mammon." "Lay not up 
for yourselves treasures upon earth." But to-day 
the Christian nations own the earth and dominate 
the world. Our ships would have seemed more like 
mountains than boats to the people of Tyre. Our 
stores of merchandise, our systems of exchange, 
our hoards of gold, our many cunning inventions 
make the world of all previous generations look 
crude and meager. We claim that this is good and 



92 A Modern Dreamer 

right; but there is a suspicion that corporations 
have the balances of deceit in their hands, and 
that some owning stock in those same corpora- 
tions have heard — or profess to have heard — the 
call of the Lowly Man of Nazareth who said, "If 
any man would come after me let him deny himself 
and take up his cross and follow me." Nations 
that claim the name Christian are the rich nations, 
the powerful nations, and sometimes the nations 
that love to oppress. Whatever means efficiency, 
whatever means prosperity, whatever means in- 
crease of material wealth and earthly greatness, 
those are the things we admire. 

Is Israel becoming Canaan.^ Are the money 
changers in the Temple? Are we Canaanizing 
Christianity.^ Are we even trying to m.ake our- 
selves believe that Christ was a Canaanite, that he 
came to distribute food and clothing and to give 
shelter to the people .^^ 

And the Dreamer saw a new Prophet — perhaps 
a new School of the Prophets — that would teach 
us how to reconcile what seems conflicting, who 
would teach us that Canaan perished, not because 
she was wealthy, but because she was wicked ; that 
all wealth and prosperity and power are good, 
when rightly employed; that we must protect the 
weak, maintain righteousness and liberty on earth, 
give the blessings of physical comfort, intellectual 



Canaanizing the Christian 93 

quickening, wholesome life, and spiritual under- 
standing to all the world; that we must bend our 
energies, employ our efficiency, wear out our 
wealth in securing the Kingdom on earth — that 
is, the regnancy of God in human affairs. 

The remedy for Canaanization is consecration. 



The holy seed by heaven's peculiar grace 

Is rooted here and there in thy dark woods; 

But many a rank weed round it grows apace. 
And Mammon builds beside thy mighty floods. 

Overtopping Nature, braving Nature's God. 

Tyre mocked when Salem fell; where now is Tyre? 

Heaven was against her. Nations, thick as waves. 
Burst o'er her walls, to Ocean doomed and fire: 

And now the tideless water idly laves 
Her towers, and lone sands heap her crowned mer- 
chant's graves. 

—Kehle, 



SELLING THE CHURCH 



Chaptee XII 
SELLING THE CHURCH 

The Dreamer read : 

"I had a dream^ which was not all a dream. 
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars 
Did wander darkling in the eternal space, 
Eayless and pathless, and the icy earth 
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air. 

. . . The world was void. 
The populous and the powerful was a lump, 
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless, 
A lump of death — a chaos of hard clay." 

Thus the Poet dreamed a hundred years ago. 
Another, not a poet, dreams to-day, — a Dream 
which is not all a dream. 

The leaders of men became so bold that they 
feared nothing, so wise that they criticized every- 
thing; nothing was exempt from trial and exam- 
ination, nothing too sacred for condemnation. 
The mass of the people became a great jury to 
pass upon the decision of the leaders, — or rather 
a Court of last Resort to confirm or reverse the 
judgment of the Experts. One day, the Church 
was brought into Court, charged with insolvency. 



98 A Modern Dreamer 

"The Church is not paying its debts," said the 
Expert. "Who has anything to say in confirma- 
tion of this statement, or who has any unpaid 
claims to present?" 

The Common Man came forward. "The 
Church," he said, "has had much sympathy for 
us, she has consoled us in trouble, buried our dead, 
and tried to make us believe there is a better world. 
But she is not giving us what we really want. If 
she would bring us hot dinners when we are work- 
ing away from home, and give us free picture 
shows on Sunday, then she would be paying her 
debt. Let the Church furnish us bread and cir- 
cuses, or declare herself a bankrupt. If she is 
really sold, we hope somebody will buy her for us. 
We could use the buildings for music halls, club 
houses, billiard rooms and swimming pools. Un- 
less the Church pays us what she owes, let her be 
sold." 

Then came the Civilizer. "The Church," he 
said, "has done much valuable pioneer service. 
She has gone where no one else would work, carry- 
ing the spade and the hoe, the hammer and the 
saw, as well as the Bible and the spelling-book. 
She has put a moral restraint around evil men, 
stronger than prison bars. Truly she has been a 
great help to me. But she charges too much for 
her services. She demands, for instance, one day 



Selling the Church 99 

in every seven for herself, and that breaks up my 
business. True, she is not getting her day free 
from interruption in many communities, but the 
charge against her on this account is a large one. 
And she hinders in various ways, protesting in 
the name of purity and righteousness against some 
things which are a source of strength and power. 
Let the Church be sold, and let her debts be paid.'' 
Treading on the heels of the Civilizer, came the 
Trader. "It is quite true, what the last speaker 
has told you," he said, "only it is more my busi- 
ness than his. Trade is the one great fact and 
factor in human progress. Other animals build 
houses, make roads, lay up stores for the winter, 
defend their own and rob others, but man is the 
only animal that trades. So if human interests 
are to be maintained, trade must be free. Now 
the Church, as a pioneer and teacher and builder, 
has stimulated trad'e — in fact, everywhere the 
Church has been good for business. But in other 
ways we have found the Church a burden. She 
talks too much about truthfulness and honesty, 
about labeling packages exactly according to what 
they contain, about the sinfulness of selling things 
that are injurious, and other similar follies and 
unreasonable demands. When she cannot influ- 
ence men to follow her advice in these matters, she 
endeavors to secure the passage of laws that will 



100 A Modern Dreamer 

compel them to obey. Some of us have actually 
been fined for selling packages marked a pound 
when they contained but fourteen ounces. We 
have charged all this against the Church. Let 
the Church be sold, that payment may be made." 

Just then, a taller, larger, more commanding 
figure crowded in behind the speaker. "That 
little fellow tells the truth," said Big Business, 
"though he is of but small account. The Captains 
of Industry are Supermen; we count for some- 
thing in the world. All the great achievements 
of modern civilization should be credited to us. 
The Church, in some respects, has been helpful, 
and might have done much more. For the Church 
teaches men to think great thoughts and look on 
all sides of a subject. But as we have grown 
larger, we find the Church in our way. She tries 
to keep us from crushing the weak and the poor ; 
she protests against watering stock and wrecking 
railroads ; she denounces the large investors when 
they shear the innocent little lambs. True, the 
Church has made practically no headway against 
Big Business, and we would not be small enough 
to hand in any bill for damages. But we would 
like to see the Church sold and placed in the hands 
of some one who would make her what we think a 
Church ought to be." 

Next came the Strange Woman. "The 



Selling the Church 101 

Church," she said, "has always pitied us, but has 
never helped us. Her word to us since the days 
of the Master has always been, 'Rise, go thy way 
and sin no more.' That is not helping us, except 
on condition that we consent to become something 
different from what we are. So the Strange 
Woman, unless she ceases to be the Strange 
Woman, never receives anything from the Church. 
Nevertheless, we generally speak kindly of the 
Church ; though she never helps us, we have often 
contributed to her support. She owes us a heavy 
debt. She has commanded us to change our lives, 
and when we refused, she has hunted us from 
town to town, turned the public opinion of the 
community against us, denounced the men that 
supported us, and tried to ruin our business. We 
do not ask that damages be paid us, but we would 
breathe easier and live more prosperously, if the 
Church could be sold out. We hope whoever buj^s 
her will give us the music and the buildings; we 
could use them in our business.'' 

Next came Liquor Traffic. "My daughter," he 
said, "has stated her troubles mildly, for she is 
gentle, quiet, and uncomplaining. My charge 
against the Church is a severe one. The Church 
for many years has done me nothing but harm. 
Of course, when the missionaries have opened up 
countries where savages had previously dwelt, 



102 A Modern Dreamer 

trade has entered, and our business has prospered, 
along with others. But the Church is always 
against us. Of course we have friends in the 
Church, — there are some preachers that assist us 
in our business. But those are few and growing 
less in number every year, while our debits against 
her are multiplied. We' ask — we demand — that 
the Church be sold. When the sale occurs, we 
propose to buy her. She has injured us so much 
that our claim against her is overwhelming, so we 
can buy the whole easier than the other creditors. 
Another reason is that we have enormous wealth 
and we are accustomed to a large expense account 
in the pushing of our business. We have bought 
artists, authors, editors and professors by the 
hundreds, some of them men in high official posi- 
tion, including legislators and governors. Now we 
will buy the Church, and that will cut down all our 
other expenses to a small figure." 

The Press was the next to present his own 
claims. "The first book printed in America was a 
Bible," he said, "and ever since the Church and 
the Press have been closely connected. But the 
Church did not publish Bibles to help the Press, 
but for the strengthening of her own work. On 
the other hand, the Church owes the Press for an 
immense amount of advertising, — in fact, if the 
modern Church were cut off from the Press, she 



Selling the Church 103 

would surely die. Instead of paying this great 
debt, the Church often makes us trouble by criti- 
cising the newspapers and objecting to the circu- 
lation of certain books. As there is no prospect 
that our claim will ever be paid, we would like to 
see the Church at least put in the hands of a re- 
ceiver. We would not like to see her destroyed, 
but clearly some change is needed. We have not 
vast wealth like Liquor Traffic with which to buy 
the Church, but we would like to be appointed as 
a receiver, or head of a syndicate for the purchase, 
— the Press, of course, should be General Manager 
of the property, for everybody knows that the 
Press is the only agency in the country that really 
understands how the Church should be conducted." 
After him the Theater stepped forward. "The 
Church has done much for me," he said. "The 
Church in England gave Miracle Plays for cen- 
turies before I came, and she thus taught the 
people their need of me. The choir boys of the 
Church were permitted to exhibit my dramas when 
a professional actor was an outcast beyond pro- 
tection of the law. But, nowadays, the Church is 
against me. She has inflicted all the wrongs upon 
me of which my brother, the Press, has spoken, 
only in my case they have been multiplied. The 
Church denounces much that is innocent and 
wholesome, she opposes my using Sunday, when the 



104 A Modern Dreamer 

people are at leisure to attend my exhibitions, — 
in fact, sometimes she suggests banishing me al- 
together, as did the early Church in Rome, and 
as was attempted in England after Shakespeare. 
I serve the public better than the Church. My 
actors always learn their lines and rehearse them 
over and over, while the preacher is expected to 
speak his own weak thoughts. Some churches 
repeat the same prayers for a hundred years, but 
a play never runs more than a hundred nights in 
succession, and — " 

At this point he was interrupted by Moving 
Pictureshow, who pushed himself directly in front 
of the Press and the Theater. "I belong to the 
same family," he cried eagerly, "and this one," 
— nodding towards the Theater, — "is my twin 
brother." The Press made up a face, but the 
Theater turned his back and pretended not to 
hear, but Pictureshow continued unabashed: "I 
agree with every word they say. I would like to 
join the syndicate, proposed by the Press for the 
management of the Church. There was a time 
when Religious Services were needed, but now that 
everybody has the Sunday Paper Colored Supple- 
ment, they have no use for sermons. I would like 
to specify that the church buildings be turned over 
to us. We can use them in our business. Not one 
Pictureshow in a thousand is as well housed as 



Selling the Church 105 

the average church. It is a shame for ventilated 
rooms to be wasted on prayers and sermons, when 
they might be used for something real bloody, or 
actually funny." 

The Art Brothers were the next witnesses. 
They interrupted one another impolitely, but their 
pleas expressed a common complaint. Architec- 
ture declared that the Church had once been his 
strongest support; in her company he had built 
his finest monuments. Now, however, the Church 
wants a roof to cover an auditorium that must 
have light, heat, ventilation, seating capacity, and 
acoustic properties. She is even falling in love 
with tabernacles of undressed pine, built to accom- 
modate ten thousand people for a month, then sold 
to a wrecking company. Sculpture declared the 
Church cared for nothing nowadays except, occa- 
sionally, a wooden eagle on a lectern, or a stone 
basin on a peripatetic pedestal. Painting said his 
best work had been done for the Church, but now 
she had forgotten him, except for a new coat of 
calcimine once a lustrum. Music quoted from a 
great composer that "It was the Incarnation 
which gave birth to song." Yes, he acknowledged 
the Church as his mother, but his work is no longer 
a labor of love, for she has ceased to inspire him 
or treat him affectionately. She has made him her 
hired man; and her appreciation is little and her 



106 A Modern Dreamer 

wages meager. All agreed that the Church ought 
to be sold. 

After the Art Brothers came College with his 
family. Philosopher, Historian, Scientist, Scholar, 
Vocational Training and others. 

"The Church is no longer fit to do business as a 
leader of intellectual people," said Scholar. "She 
has too much sentiment, too much emotion. Her 
office must be handed over to — " 

"Not to you !" cried Philosopher. "You deal in 
knowledge that is labeled, catalogued, and laid 
away to rust. A true leader must be a man of 
theories and arguments — " 

"But if theories and arguments are of any use," 
broke in Scientist, "they must be founded upon 
facts, not facts of word or book or fancy, but 
exact facts, such facts as are investigated and 
established in the laboratory and nowhere else. 
My charge against the Church is that she has 
opposed Me in my work. True, she is friendly 
enough now, but the old debt still stands against 
her with accrued interest. She persecuted the 
scientists — " 

"Nonsense!" said History. "The Church was 
not to blame! Your doctors disagreed among 
themselves, and some of them dragged in the 
Church, trying to use her as a makeweight on their 
side in the argument. The trouble with the 



Selling the Church 107 

Church is that she puts the Bible above my books, 
and so — " j f [ 

"One book is as good as another when both talk 
about things that happened thousands of years 
ago ! " sneered Vocational Training. "The trouble 
with the Church — like the trouble with many other 
leaders, — " and he looked around significantly 
upon his brothers of the College Family — "the 
trouble with the Church is that she doesn't teach 
about the necessary things of daily life, how to 
get a living — " 

"Hush ! Hush !" cried College, trying to tap an 
imaginary bell. "This is not a Faculty Meeting. 
This is a Court of Justice. I used to live with 
the Church. In fact for centuries the Church was 
my support. Sometimes she claims to be my 
parent. I am sure she is old enough. But in these 
days she has become unnecessary. I have charged 
against her on my books many millions which 
ought to have gone to support me and my family. 
In fact, all she has belongs to me. I will take the 
buildings and endowments and do all the Church 
work, so far as such work is needed." 

After this noisy family had been quieted. Poli- 
tician spoke. "The Church will not be destroyed," 
he said, "so long as I am in the saddle. I have 
won many elections by promising to oppose the 
enemies of the Church. In several other ways she 



108 A Modern Dreamer 

has helped me win. But sometimes she is inde- 
pendent, and claims to have a conscience, and 
causes me to lose. The Church must live, but she 
must belong to me. I will have the useless and 
troublesome appendix — what some call conscience 
— removed by a surgical operation, and keep her 
for election purposes. Then there will be no 
apparent change, and no tearing to pieces of es- 
tablished orders, no abolishing of ancient customs, 
or profaning of sacred symbols, as has been sug- 
gested by these others. The Church must be 
mine. I need her in my business." 

Next came the King. All the others looked 
upon him with awe and reverence until he began 
to speak, then they saw that he was a very com- 
mon man. "I own the Church already," he said. 
"Do you not remember the words of my ancient 
title, ^AU things for the Church, and the Church 
for Caesar'? Who ever heard of a King without a 
Church? You talk about a Church without a 
King in America, but that must be a mistake. 
The Church has helped me; but I, for my part, 
have helped the Church. I have imprisoned and 
tortured and put to death thousands of heretics 
to please the Church. My claim is a first mort- 
gage—" 

At this point the King was pushed aside by a 
rough hand. "Who dares, — " he began. 



Selling the Church 109 



<n 



'I dare!" said War. "Even rulers are subject 
to me. I set up kings and I throw them down. I 
sometimes make a nation worship one of them, and 
again I mock him and take away his crown. I 
will do the same with the Church. The Church 
has helped me often, she has furnished some of the 
bravest soldiers that ever served me on the battle- 
field. In fact, when I am at work the Church 
always helps me. But when I am idle, she de- 
nounces me, calling me the fiercest robber, the 
greatest plunderer, and a wholesale murderer. I 
fear the time is coming when the words of the 
Church may make some impression upon the 
world. Then it might be impossible for me to 
secure a job of any kind. The Church and War 
cannot live permanently in the same world. She 
may build, but I will burn until one or the other 
shall have ceased to claim the earth.'* 

The Expert consulted with his friends, but 
no one cared to make a plea in defense, so the 
decree was issued that the Church, being bankrupt, 
should be sold at auction. The people did not ob- 
ject, so the sale was announced. 

The King attempted to protest on the ground 
that his was a preferred claim, and that the 
Church should be delivered over to him without 
ceremony. The others jeered at him as they cried : 

"This is America, Kings have no rights here." 



110 A Modern Dreamer 

"But the Church is in Europe," protested the 
King. 

"The Church is everywhere," they answered. 
"But it cannot be sold an3rv\^here unless it is first 
sold in America. Away with the King. He has 
no place in this Court." 

Now, while the trial had been going on, the 
Dreamer had watched with interest one spectator 
who kept himself constantly in the shadow, but 
whose expression was somewhat striking. He was 
neatly dressed in conventional black; the ends of 
his dark mustache pointed towards the tops of his 
ears; and his rectilinear brows slanted upward 
from their meeting-place. His restless eyes seemed 
to take in everything, and once or twice the 
Dreamer fancied that he whispered in the ear of 
one who was about to make a complaint before 
the Expert. But his movements were so quick 
as to be uncertain to the eye of the spectator. 
He never spoke aloud, but a cynical smile was 
seen about the corners of his mouth as one of the 
complainants spoke of buying the Church. When 
the time for the sale arrived, this Dark One drew 
a little nearer to the center of the. crowd, and 
searched every face with his keen and masterly 
glance. 

The Common Man and the Civilizer were a lit- 
tle disconcerted when the decision was announced. 



Selling the Church 111 

but they were reminded that both had witnessed 
and argued in favor of the sale. They offered 
their claims against the Church as the first bid, 
but the Trader laughed as he proposed a large 
sum of money. 

The Art Brothers, the College Family, the 
Press, the Modern Theater, and the Pictureshow, 
all wished to bid, but they had no money — they 
could offer only their own wares, and no one 
would accept these at the owners' valuation. 

War tried to bid, but he had wasted all his 
substance and the fruit of all his plunder, as well 
as all that oppressive taxation could squeeze out 
of the World's treasuries. He muttered some- 
thing about taking the property from whoever 
might buy it. Then the Dark One smiled again. 

Politician made them all gasp when he offered 
thousands of official appointments, as well as high 
elective positions, and graft beyond computation. 
"It is an extravagant price," he said, "but I must 
have the Church; I need her in my business." 

Then Big Business laughed long and loud. 
"Did you think to out-bid me?" he cried. Coming 
forward, he laid upon the desk before the auc- 
tioneer, bonds, stocks, and deeds innumerable, and 
gold and silver uncounted. "I think I will take 
tlje Church," he said. 

Liquor Traffic chuckled as he presented a cer- 



112 A Modern Dreamer 

tified check. "I offer you," he said, "half the 
revenues of twenty nations as a perpetual income, 
if I may have the Church." Big Business 
shrugged his shoulders, and the others nodded 
assent. 

Suddenly all eyes were turned to the Dark One 
who spoke for the first time, and one could but 
note his mocking smile of triumph and air of 
authority, in spite of his soft speech and gentle 
manner. 

"I, too, have a check," he said. "I offer all the 
kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." 

"What will you do with the Church, now that 
she is yours?" inquired Big Business. 

"My first intention," replied the Dark One, 
"was to keep the Church, have her serve me, and 
conduct all her affairs in my own interests. I 
have changed my mind, and have decided to de- 
stroy her. She will be imprisoned for the present." 

The Church was sold! There were little chil- 
dren with no Pastor to bless them; there was no 
Sunday School to interest them in music and 
prayer and right living. There were no church 
bells to remind men and women that the Lord's 
Day had come again. Soon there was no Lord's 
Day. People played for a time on that day, but 
by and by the poor for the most part were asked 
to work that they might minister to the pleasure 



Selling the Church 113 

of the rich. Young people fell in love and planned 
a home of their own, but there was no divine bless- 
ing invoked at their wedding, and love became 
something less sacred, less holy, than before. Men 
died. Sometimes a friend spoke words of appre- 
ciation, but a burial became a gloomy ceremony, 
when there was no longer some one to repeat the 
Divine Message, "I am the resurrection and the 
life." Some wrote books with high and noble 
thoughts, but more and more men turned the 
leaves hastily, saying, "What is the use?" Less 
and less men tried to pray, for they said, "If there 
is a God, his interest in this world has been sold 
out." Not only a spiritual but also an intellectual 
stupor came upon human life. They might have 
established educational and industrial centers 
among the ignorant and savage people when there 
were no longer missionaries to maintain them in 
connection with religious work ; but they did not. 
Gradually there was a falling down of the various 
organizations for improving the conditions of the 
people, for they had drawn the most of their in- 
spiration from the Church and the most of their 
funds from those that worship in the Sanctuary. 

One said, "What does it mean to live?" and an- 
other answered, "What does it mean to die?" 

One said, "What is the use of living?" and an- 
other answered, "What is the use of dying?" 



114 A Modern Dreamer 

One said, "Why should I live?" and another 
answered, "Why should I die?" 

One said, "I do not want to live," and another 
answered, "I do not want to die." When the 
Pilates — no longer with a sneer, but with deep 
anxiety — inquired, "What is truth?" there was 
no Church to repeat the words of the Master, 
"Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." 

The Day of Life seemed dull and gloomy, and 
the Night of Death dark and long. Men drank 
deep and sang, 

"Ho ! stand to your glasses steady^ 
This world is a world of lies ; 
Here's a cup to the dead already^ 
And hurrah ! for the next that dies/' 

Liquor Traffic counted his piles of gold and 
chuckled as he said to himself, "I have cheated the 
Devil himself. I have all that I could have ob- 
tained had I bought the Church, and he has paid 
the bills." 

Then the people sang a slow, mournful song 
and this is the minor strain they chanted: 

''The City is of Night; perchance of Death, 
But certainly of Night; for never there 
Can come the lucid morning's fragrant breath 
After the dewy dawning's cold, grtj air; 



Selling the Church 115 

The moon and stars may shine with scorn and pity ; 

The sun has never visited that city. 

• •••••••• 

**The sense that every struggle brings defeat 

Because fate holds no prize to crown success; 
That all the oracles are dumb or cheat 

Because they have no secret to express ; 
That none can pierce the vast black veil uncertain 
Because there is no light beyond the curtain; 

That all is vanity and nothingness/' 

But, thank God, the Dream did not end in 
despair. After a time, it was noised abroad that 
the check paid for the Church had been protested, 
that the purchaser had defrauded the Expert. 
The Kingdoms of this World and the Glory of 
them did not belong to the Dark One. The earth 
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Kingdoms 
and thrones belong to Him also, and He has given 
them to his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 

Moreover, the Church was bought long ago — 
long before the World's Trial and Judgment and 
Condemnation, — long before the complaining 
millions of men entered their debits against her. 
The Church was bought and paid for ; and no au- 
thority on earth can condemn her to the auction 
block, and give the purchaser a valid title. The 
payment was a fraud ; the sale also was a fraud. 



116 A Modern Dreamer 

Many times has the Expert imagined that he 
was selling the Church, while the people cried out, 
"Crucify Her!" Many times has the Dark One 
claimed that he had bought the Church. But still 
the Church goes on, stumbling over a rough road 
and making many mistakes, but still working deeds 
of mercy, still calling men to virtue and honesty, 
still crying out in the wilderness, "Repentance and 
Life," holding up before men's brightening eyes 
that Hope which is big with Immortality. 

This is the Church of God which He hath pur- 
chased with his own blood. 



Was sich dem Nichts entgegenstellt, 
Das Etwas, diese plumpte Welt^ 
So viel als ich schon internommen^ 
Ich wuszte nicht ihr beizukommen^ 
Mit Wellen^ Stuermen^ Schuetteln^ Brand, 
Geruhig bleibt am Ende Meer und Land ! 

— Mephistopheles, in Goethe's Faust, 



THE FALLING TOWER 



Chapter XIII 
THE FALLING TOWER 

Jerusalem is a city of many dreams. If we 
close our eyes a moment we see the flat roofs, the 
tiny domes, the ghostly white olive trees outside 
the crumbling walls, the hoary mountains round 
about Jerusalem. The people come and go with 
varying life — now sluggish and indolent, now 
fierce and turbulent, always self-righteous and in- 
tolerant. Pontius Pilate sits on the judgment 
seat with the Roman soldiers beside him — those 
men of steely hearts, fearless minds, and unerring 
muscles. Pilate, calm and contemptuous, despises 
the people, yet knows he must be careful in dealing 
with them; and the people hate him and also fear 
him, for he is their ruler, and he is Rome ! They 
and he watch each the other like two wild beasts, 
ready to spring and rend. 

The Dreamer saw that, at a certain time, the 
water supply of the city was insufficient, and 
Pilate decided to build a new aqueduct to bring in 
an additional provision. But there was no public 
revenue over and above other expenses that could 
be used for this purpose. So Pilate issued an 
ar'bitrary command. There would be, he told the 



120 A Modern Dreamer 

people, no need of more water in the city but for 
the fact that so much was used in the cleansing 
ceremonies and purifications of the Temple. The 
new aqueduct was for the Temple, there was 
money in the Temple treasury, therefore the 
Temple must pay for the aqueduct. 

Then the Jews protested that the gold and sil- 
ver in the Temple was sacred; it was the tax on 
Jewish manhood — not the ordinary Roman tax 
for national or municipal purposes — but the tax 
which the people assessed against themselves to 
maintain their own religious institutions ; the fund 
also included freewill offerings from devout Jews 
scattered abroad in many lands. The gold of the 
Temple was holy; to use it for such a purpose 
was like profaning the Sanctuary. 

They grew more and more excited. Their hot 
arguments became angry words and fierce denun- 
ciations. But Pilate was like granite. He would 
not argue, he scorned even to laugh at them, but 
carried forward without hesitation the work as he 
had planned. The Scribes and Pharisees and 
Priests and people could do naught but curse. 

When the workmen, paid from the Temple 
treasury, began to dig within the city, multitudes 
followed and reviled them. These people durst 
not resort to force or perform any deed of vio- 
lence, for the stern Roman soldiers were on guard. 



The Falling Tower 121 

But though they feared to throw missiles with 
their hands, they poured forth the vilest words 
that lips could frame, and followed the workmen 
day after day, threatening them with the tortures 
of those condemned to eternal punishment. 

One day, when these workmen were digging a 
little too near the Tower of Siloam, a portion 
of the foundation was undermined, the earth 
crumbled, some of the wall fell upon the workmen, 
and killed eighteen of them. Then the Pharisees 
and the mob of their followers shouted in fierce 
triumph, 

"God," they said, "has shown strength with 
his arm. The wicked are snared in the work of 
their own hands. The Lord did smite the earth 
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of 
his lips hath He slain the wicked. Those men of 
iniquity have perished who worked for gold and 
silver taken from the Temple. Thus shall all be 
punished that sin against God and his Holy 
Place." 

Now, in those days there was a young Rabbi 
from Galilee sojourning in Jerusalem, who had 
become well known to the people because of his 
healing the sick and his sympathizing with the 
sinful. As He passed along the streets of Jeru- 
salem with his disciples, mention was made of this 
punishment God had inflicted upon the guilty men 



122 A Modern Dreamer 

who took as hire the gold which was supposed to 
sanctify the Temple. The young Master listened 
to what was said, and then He spoke: 

"And those eighteen upon whom the tower in 
Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were 
sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I 
tell you nay. But except ye repent ye shall all 
likewise perish." 

The Master bowed his head as he spoke, and 
the Dreamer saw warm tears drop into the dust. 
But the Dreamer did not hear any word from the 
Master retracting or modifying the solemn warn- 
ing — a thousandfold more solemn because it came 
from divine lips of Infinite Love. 



Such is the paths of all who leave God^ 
And the wicked man's hope shall die^ 
He who trusts in a fragile things 
And a spider's house is his hope. 
He leans on his house and it stands not; 
He grasps it^ it doth not endure. 

— Gilbert's Job. 



THE CITY OF DREADFUL HUNGER 



Chapter XIV 
THE CITY OF DREADFUL HUNGER 

The Dreamer saw a great city covering hills 
and plains. In the mountains above were gold 
and iron; in the sea beneath, corals and pearls. 
Within this city Vere beautiful gardens, rare 
works of art, halls of learning, and temples of 
music. The wisdom of ages was written on her 
records, and the wealth of continents hidden in 
her vaults. Many ships came to that imperial city, 
ships sailing in the air and on the sea, and under 
the sea. It represented the grandest, most suc- 
cessful of all human building. 

But the people of that city were hungry. 
There was famine in that land. Men walked the 
streets tottering with consuming weakness ; women 
bowed their heads and wept ; little emaciated chil- 
dren sobbed for want of food. Death stalked 
among them unhindered, for man had no power to 
resist him. 

Now, there was a great King far away who heard 
of their trouble, and pitied them so much that he 
spread generous tables just outside the city, and 
sent messengers to tell the starving people that 



126 A Modern Dreamer 

they might come and eat, without money and 
without price. 

"Not now," said one, "I will eat the King's food 
by and by." 

Another looked up with hollow eyes, but looked 
down again with scowling brows, shaking his head. 
"It cannot be true," he growled. "It is not rea- 
sonable that a great King would do such a thing 
as that. It is a trick to deceive us." 

"Yes," muttered a third, "if He really wishes 
to feed us, let Him bring the food nearer." 

"I don't believe the food offered is such as we 
like," grumbled still another. "The King should 
have asked us what we desired and provided us 
with that, if He is really kind and wishes to save 
us from starvation." 

So they croaked and fretted and snarled; and 
few indeed accepted the Great Invitation. Yet 
the generous King's heart was still filled with pity. 
He loved them in spite of their refusal. So He 
sent his Only Son, hoping that the perishing 
people would hear Him and believe his word. 

At first they listened, then sneered, then became 
angry. Finally they seized Him and beat Him, 
dragged Him outside the city wall, and crucified 
Him. 

Meantime, some of those who had heeded the 
invitation and had gone to the table returned and 



The City of Dreadful Hunger 127 

testified that all which had been told of it was 
true. "Oh ! taste and see that the Lord is good," 
they said. 

But still many millions in that City are dying 
of hunger. Still they refuse to eat, drink and live. 
They feed upon the ghastly ashes of virtue and 
the loathsome husks of sin. Sometimes they fight 
with one another over their wretched fare, and 
blood flows in the streets of the City. But always 
the table of the King is loaded with the Bread of 
Life, and that which is Meat indeed, and with the 
Fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance. But still men die of hunger and still 
they refuse the King's table, and still they hear 
the Voice crying, if they will but listen, "The 
Spirit and the Bride say. Come. And let him that 
heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst 
come, and whosoever will let him take of the Water 
of Life freely." 



Try what repentance can: what can it not? 
Yet what can it^ when one .cannot repent? 

— Shakespeare, 



THE THREE CROSSES 



Chapter XV 
THE THREE CROSSES 

The Dreamer saw a thief hiding among the 
thorn scrubs — ^he was more than a thief, he was 
an outlaw, a malefactor, a doer of evil deeds. He 
was brave in battle, but he did not hesitate to 
strike the unarmed in the dark, nor to torture his 
captives, that they might be induced to reveal the 
secret of their hidden gold. But the Roman sol- 
diers, whom no danger could deter, no labor dis- 
hearten, and no failure discourage, hunted him 
like a wild beast over the hills, tracked him as they 
might track a lone wolf from thicket to thicket 
and from cave to cave among the rocks. Finally 
he was surrounded, loaded with chains, driven to 
Jerusalem, thrown into a dungeon, sentenced to 
death, dragged to a hill outside the walls, and 
nailed to a cross. 

He dies as he had lived. There is an innocent 
man beside him whom the creatures of the rabble 
choose to revile, and this malefactor joins his 
voice with theirs in insults and curses — spends his 
last breath in trying to injure another, in trying 
to make more bitter the dying moments of an 
innocent man. Thus his life goes out in pain, in 



132 A Modern Dreamer 

failure, in wickedness, and in darkness. Over his 
cross there is an inscription in old Latin letters ; 
but it is dim and cannot be read. The dream 
alphabet, however, speaks clearly: 

"This is the Cross of Retribution." 

Near by is another cross. On this is hung an- 
other criminal, another malefactor. So far as the 
Dreamer knows, this second malefactor is just as 
deep-dyed in wickedness. At first he joins with the 
rabble in reviling the innocent Man beside him. 
But as the moments, — each like hours because so 
crowded with pain — drag on, and morning be- 
comes noon, and the brightness of noon fades into 
an aged day, there is something in the attitude 
of the Man who is praying for his executioners 
that attracts the malefactor's attention. The 
love of Him who dies for the ungodly, the heroism 
of Him who bears the sins of the world, impress 
themselves upon the criminal so forcibly that they 
break through the outer shell of crime and cruelty, 
and pierce down deep into the secret and self-for- 
gotten corners of his soul. Chords begin to vibrate 
that had been silent for many years. Finally, 
before the last great agony, he turns to this Man 
of Power and Love with one great cry for help. 
It is little that he asks — ^just remembrance, — little 
that he has to give — just the crucifixion of pride 
and resurrection of faith, — but he gives all he 



The Three Crosses 133 

has ; and He who knows the hearts of all men says 
it is enough. Over this cross we read the in- 
scription : 

"The Cross of Repentance." 

Between these two is another Cross — the Cross 
of the Innocent Sufferer — the Cross of Him who 
knew no sin but was made sin for us. He saw the 
sorrow and shame of the world, and his heart 
yearned to help us, and He saw that the only way 
to help us was to become one of us, to enter into 
the sorrow, to share the pain, to place himself 
under the load of human sin and shame, side by 
side with the guilty. But He knew that if He did 
this, weak men would misunderstand Him, wicked 
men would hate Him, they would buffet his body, 
they would break his heart, they would nail Him to 
a Cross. Since He saw all this and yet came to 
save the people from their sins, we say that He 
bore our sins in his own body on the Tree. What- 
ever the Roman governor may have written over 
this cross, we read: 

"This is the Cross of Redemption" — redemption 
through suffering and sacrifice. 

The sun sets, Pilate washes his hands, but the 
crosses are still there. The wall of Jerusalem is 
broken down, — the Crosses are still there. The 
Roman Empire is torn into fragments, — the 



134j a Modern Dreamer 

Crosses are still there. We look again, through 
the gray vista of centuries, — the Crosses are still 
there, throwing, their long dark shadows athwart 
the highways and byways of human life — ^and 
through these shadows the sons of men must walk, 
— the Cross of Retribution, the Cross of Re- 
pentance, the Cross of Redemption. 

The Dreamer sees every sinner on Calvary. He 
sees every malefactor crucified. He sees every 
sin, if it be not removed through repentance and 
forgiveness, bearing a bitter fruit of pain and 
sorrow. The murderer does his work and goes 
his way, but from the blood of his victim Nemesis 
arises and follows, a sleepless shadow, through 
forest, field and forum, through halls of learning 
and haunts of leprosy ; and if it overtake him not, 
before Death lays a heavy hand upon his heart, it 
lies down beside him in the grave, to arise, to fol- 
low, to find him in the unknown regions of the 
World called Hereafter. 

But the case of the malefactor is by no means 
hopeless. There is the other cross, the Cross of 
Repentance. The Cross means sorrow and pain, 
but it also means being side by side with Jesus. 
Had that thief who repented succeeded in escap- 
ing his pursuers, it would have been a fatal mis- 



The Three Crosses 135 

fortune. It was God's great blessing to him that 
the strong arm of the Law seized him, that he was 
hurried to Jerusalem, condemned and punished. 
Blessed was his failure, blessed was his capture, 
blessed were the shame and pain of his condemna- 
tion, blessed was his punishment, blessed the tor- 
ture of crucifixion, blessed the pain of an awaken- 
ing conscience; blessed all these, because they 
brought him near to the Saviour. Man may never 
meet Jesus along the road of useless and meaning- 
less suffering, for He never walked that path ; but 
there is no such thing as salvation without re- 
pentance, and repentance is a form of suffering, 
for it means acknowledging error, confessing 
wrong, tearing out evils from the heart, and going 
down into the valley of humiliation. Thus only 
we find the place where Christ dwells. We cannot 
even track his footsteps without taking up a cross 
to follow Him. Blessed are our crosses, for they 
bring us face to face with ourselves, and side by 
side with Jesus. 

The Dreamer looked about among the sons and 
daughters of men, and saw some of them bearing 
the Cross of Redemption — the cross of helpful- 
ness through suffering. John and James came 
to Jesus asking for the two places nearest Him in 
the Kingdom. 



136 A Modern Dreamer 

"Are ye able," He said, "to drink the cup that 
I am about to drink?" 

And they said, "We are able." 

And He said, "The cup that I drink ye shall 
drink; and with the baptism that I am baptized 
withal shall ye be baptized." These words are not 
a rebuke, much less a condemnation, but the con- 
ferring of a favor. They asked what He could 
not grant, but He gave them all they could re- 
ceive, the privilege of fellowship with Him in his 
suffering for the salvation of the world. This is 
the true Call of the Cross, — not punishment, not 
merely the salvation of one shriveled up little soul, 
but gladness of burden-bearing, side by side with 
Him who for the joy that was set before Him 
endured the Cross. 

The Dreamer looks far away to distant fields of 
carnage. There are seen men crushed, broken, 
tortured, destroyed, twenty million bound to a 
Cross. Some have been brought there by selfish 
ambition, unholy greed, or heathen hatred. 
Theirs is the Cross of Retribution. Others have 
left the old path of personal comfort and selfish 
success, the path that means nothing and leads 
nowhere, — left it that they might help to do what 
needs to be done, to do a man's work and take a 
man's pay, even though it be a shattered body 



The Three Crosses 137 

or a painful death, — ^like Him of whom it was 
said : 

"Nothing in his life 
Became him like the leaving it." 

They are bearing the Cross of Repentance. 

Others have come in obedience to what they 
believe to be the law of Righteousness, the law of 
Holiness. Mistaken sometimes they may be, but 
they honestly believe they have come to save 
their country from slavery, the world from op- 
pression, and the future from a curse. They are 
bearing the Cross of Redemption, the Cross of 
Sacrifice, the Cross that is heavy with the sins of 
the world. In the midst of death they are in Life ; 
in the midst of hate, they are in Love; for 
"Greater love knows no man than this, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends." 

The Dreamer saw the making of the Crosses, 
and he who forged the nails had the name "Sin'' 
burned into his forehead. It was Sin that joined 
them together piece by piece; it was Sin that 
erected them on the skull-shaped Hill outside 
Jerusalem ; the Cross of Retribution, the Cross of 
Repentance, the Cross of Redemption. It was 
Sin that nailed the condemned to these crosses: 
the wicked man, the repentant man, the Perfect 



138 A Modern Dreamer 

Man. Sin stands beside those Crosses, his com- 
pleted work, while Golgotha frowns upon Mt. 
Zion. As long as Sin abides on earth, the road 
that every man must travel passes over Calvary. 

The question of this Age is not, "Will you bear 
a cross?" No man can escape the Cross. The 
question is, "Which Cross will you bear?" 

The Dreamer sees these Crosses as they top the 
Calvary of the Ages. The Cross of Retribution is 
in darkness ; it stands upon the edge of an abyss ; 
and the depth of that abyss no man knows. The 
Cross of Repentance is also in the darkness ; but 
above it is a light like the Star of Bethlehem. Now 
a faint gleam shines down from the Star and 
touches the Cross of Repentance. It brightens ! 
Lo ! it has become that mysterious Stairway which 
Jacob saw, its foot upon earth and its top in 
heaven. For the Cross of Repentance marks the 
entrance of the Way which leads to Paradise. 

The Dreamer looks again! the shadows are 
lifting. It is no longer a dream, but a Vision, — 
a Vision of the Future ! The Cross of Retribution 
is fading away, or rather it is blending with the 
Cross of Repentance; for every knee is bowing 
and every tongue is confessing. There is no more 
Retribution. 

Look once more! The Cross of Repentance is 



The Three Crosses 139 

blending with the Cross of Redemption. Men no 
longer cry out for Paradise, but for Christ-like- 
ness. 

"Deformed, reformed, transformed, conformed." 

The Cross is no longer a symbol of pain, of 
burden, of humiliation ; but it has become a beacon 
of Blessedness, a Diadem of Beauty, a Crown of 
Glory. 

"For the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the 
sea." 

Is this but a dream .^^ The dream is certain, 
and the interpretation thereof sure. 



Those holy fields. 
Over whose acres walked those bleeding feet. 
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd 
For our advantage on the bitter cross. 

— Shakespeare, 



THREE HEAVENS 



i Chapter XVI 

THREE HEAVENS 

The Dreamer saw Paul the Apostle, Paul great 
of mind, great in activity, great of soul ; and Paul 
was in trouble. Some flippant and shallow Chris- 
tian teachers could not or would not recognize 
overmastering greatness. They stung him with 
slur and ridicule and criticism, until the intellectual 
and spiritual giant was pained by the arrows of 
Lilliput. Some of his own dear children in the 
Faith seemed inclined to accept these silly estimates 
of Paul, — ^^that he did not do much, did not know 
much, was not a finished orator, had never seen 
the Master, was not a man of vision and spiritual 
insight. 

Paul did not want flattery. He had never 
heard the saying, "I love thee freely as men strive 
for right. I love thee purely as they turn from 
praise." He did not need to hear it. It was his 
own sentiment. Only those are really free vA\o 
strive for right ; only those truly pure, who turn 
from praise. Much less would a pure man boast ; 
he had told his people that a boaster is a fool. 
But the time had come when he must play the part 



144 A Modern Dreamer 

of a fool to maintain the importance of his work 
and the honor of his Master. So he told them in 
a few clear-cut words about the labors he had per- 
formed, the dangers he had faced, and the pain he 
had endured. None of these shallow-pated little 
fault-finders had experienced anything like that. 

Then he turned to visions and dreams. Here 
he hesitated as one knowing that the last boast 
of noble-minded man would be a boast of his own 
religious experience. It hurts to be a fool even 
for Christ's sake, but he goes on. He does not 
enter into detail as he had done concerning his 
dangers and labors. He might have told the story 
of repeated supernatural visitations that gave 
guidance and promised protection. He chooses 
to speak of one experience only, one so far beyond 
human apprehension, that with it nothing else can 
be compared. 

"I knew a man in Christ," he says, "above 
fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot 
tell; or whether out of the body I cannot tell, 
God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third 
heaven.'* 

Paul was a Dreamer; he dreamed of Three 
Heavens. If another Dreamer could idealize that 
dream, how marvelous the glory of the triple 
vision ! But the present Dreamer dreams his own 
dreams. 



Three Heavens 146 

The Dreamer sees a man of hate; his hatred 
is that bitter variety known as religious fanati- 
cism. He is earnest, energetic, talented and deter- 
mined. Not satisfied with the death of his leading 
opponent and the virtual suppression of what he 
calls heresy in Jerusalem, the city of his residence, 
he is on his way to Damascus to continue his 
bloody inquisition, and to find if possible any of 
the new faith and hale them to prison. On his 
way to Damascus he hears a voice and sees a light. 
Ever after that he is truthful, honest, kind and 
helpful, pure in heart and consecrated in life. All 
his talents, his learning, his energy, his activity 
are multiplied, and to the sum of the product is 
added a consuming desire to turn men and women 
into the right way, — not to kill them for going 
wrong, not to drive them with rods and stones, 
but to win them with cool reason and warm affec- 
tion. He is no longer a man of hate, but a man of 
love, and he journeys from city to city and from 
land to land, seeking for the precious souls of men 
and women that may be added to the Kingdom 
of Jesus Christ, as a miser seeks for golden nug- 
gets, goodly pearls and sparkling diamonds. 
Something went out of that man's heart, and some- 
thing has come in, something pleasant, and beau- 
tiful, and glorious, the image of the divine upon 



146 A Modern Dreamer 

an individual human soul. That is heaven, the 
First Heaven. 

The Dreamer saw a sinful woman bowed down 
and weeping over her pain and shame. When the 
Master spoke kindly to her and told her to sin no 
more, the evil spirit departed, and Heaven^ — the 
First Heaven — came into her soul and abode 
there. 

The Dreamer saw many, many more, some who 
are known to the world, others whose names are 
not written on any page of history, — a long pro- 
cession of God's own, from diverse lands and 
varied generations, and a vast multitude now liv- 
ing on earth, and living that life which is hid with 
Christ in God. They live and love, they buy, sell 
and get gain, they eat, drink and are merry; but 
always are they ready to sacrifice — ^always bear- 
ing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. 
They are like other men on the outside, but within 
there is something which is not of earth earthy, 
and its meaning is writ deep upon their hearts. It 
is the First Heaven, the Heaven Within. 

The Dreamer saw also the Second Heaven, 
which is the Heaven Around. It is the Heaven 
of God's will done on earth. It is earth without 
the curse of falsehood and covetousness and 
jealousy and hatred and unrestrained passion. It 



Three Heavens 147 

is a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. In 
this Heaven man loves his brother, and nation 
loves nation; the strong nation deals with the 
weak as the Good Samaritan dealt with the fallen 
man on the Jericho Road. The weak, the hungry, 
the cold, and lonely among men and nations are 
cared for, and the individual conscience and col- 
lective conscience are void of offence before God 
and before man. 

This is the Divine Spirit in possession of human 
life. Now we see not yet all things put under 
Him; but we dream it, this is our vision and our 
prophecy. And the Just, who live by Faith, are 
even now partakers of this heavenly life, dwellers 
in the Second Heaven, the Heaven Around. 

Paul in his Dream saw the Third Heaven, the 
Heaven Beyond. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love Him," Paul said. Yet Paul apprehended, for 
he added, "But God hath revealed them unto us 
by his Spirit: for the Spirit searchest all things, 
yea, the deep things of God." What Paul expe- 
rienced he could not put into human language. 
Had he found words, it would have been unlawful 
for him to have uttered them. 

This much the Dreamer read, and with the mes- 



148 A Modern Dreamer 

sage came the irresistible impulse to tell it so that 
all the world might hear: — He, and he only, who 
has experienced the First Heaven, the Heaven 
Within, and the Second Heaven, the Heaven 
Around, can be rapt from human interests, sepa- 
rated from earthly affairs, and caught up to the 
Third Heaven, the Heaven Beyond. 



I sent my Soul through the Invisible^ 
Some letter of that after life to spell; 

And by and by my Soul returned to me 
And answered^ "I, myself^ am Heaven and Hell/* 

— Omar. 

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father 
is this. 
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affiction. 
And to keep himself unspotted from the world. 

— James, a Servant of God, 

Whence this pleasing hope^ this fond desire. 
This longing after immortality.'^ . . . 

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter. 

And intimates eternity to man. 

Eternity ! — thou pleasing, dreadful thought. 

— Addison. 



LAST FIRST AND FIRST LAST 



Chapter XVII 
LAST FIRST AND FIRST LAST 

"Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
of the world." 

Thus spoke the Judge, and the iSrst to respond 
were the Scribes and Pharisees. They had taught 
the Law to others, they had tithed and fasted and 
prayed; they had been examples of holiness to 
their generation. So great and so good were they 
— in their own estimation — that the Kingdom of 
Heaven must be hungry for them; the spirits 
of just men made perfect, and even the angels of 
God, must be awaiting them eagerly. Moreover, 
they would be expected to enter first of all, so if 
they delayed, it would cause many others to wait. 
Therefore the Scribes and Pharisees came forward 
promptly — not hastening as though vulgarly 
easier to enter the Kingdom, but as though willing 
to prepare the way for the less worthy who were 
to follow. 

Then came forward a company of men quite 
common in appearance. Their clothes were not 
mean or ragged, but for the most part, plain and 



152 A Modern Dreamer 

coarse. There were twelve in all, and the 
majority of them laborers. 

Halt! cried the Scribes. These are men of 
earth. Some are fishermen. Their occupation 
makes them ceremonially unclean. Their presence 
now would profane the Kingdom. They must 
wait until their purification can be accomplished, 
as Moses commanded. 

"Hinder them not!'' said the Judge. "When I 
was on earth, they came to me willingly, and fol- 
lowed me faithfully. When others went back and 
walked no more with me, they testified all the more 
boldly, 'This is the Christ the Son of the Living 
God.' They were with me the last night of my life ; 
some followed after I was arrested. They even 
came to the cenotaph to search for my body. 
Then, while you were disputing about jots and 
tittles or praying at the corners of the streets to 
be seen of men, these Twelve labored, journeyed 
and suffered, giving even their lives that my Gospel 
might grip the hearts of the people. Stand back ! 
These are my chosen Learners and Teachers and 
Workers. They enter the Kingdom before you." 

After the group of Twelve had passed on, there 
came one alone — like the others, and yet different. 
He was short of stature and evidently weak in 
body, but he walked with the stride of masterful 
energy and unerring confidence. There was noth- 



Last First and First Last 153 

ing of pride or haughtiness in his bearing, but 
rather the consciousness of Divine Presence and 
Spiritual Power. Every movement as he walked 
along seemed to confirm what his countenance ex- 
pressed, "I can do all things through Christ which 
strengtheneth me.'' 

When the Pharisees saw this man they scowled 
with anger. "Heretic !" they cried. "Apostate ! 
This is Saul of Tarsus. He was trained in our 
schools and given the advantage of all our learn- 
ing; then he turned against us. He betrayed his 
people, he made friends with the uncircumcised, 
he ate with the Gentiles. Let him not profane the 
Kingdom." 

"You are wrong," replied the Judge. "That 
man is Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ. While 
you and many others of your character were look- 
ing for honorable position in synagogue and soci- 
ety, nursing your own comfort and pleasure, this 
man whom you denounce had but one desire, the 
desire expressed by the first question of faith, 
'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' He traveled 
weary roads, traversed rugged mountains, 
breasted angry rivers, and fought with beasts at 
Ephesus. He was shipwrecked, beaten with rods, 
pelted with stones, fettered with chains, — always 
bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord 
Jesus — and always successful in beseeching men. 



154 A Modern Dreamer 

in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. He 
comes as one born out of due time, a little after 
the others, but the greatest of them all, and one 
of earth's noblest heroes." 

The Scribes and Pharisees, feeling the rebuke, 
waited respectfully while Paul the Apostle went 
before them; but ere there was time for them to 
move forward again, they found themselves sur- 
rounded by crowds of children. These Little Ones, 
light-hearted and joyous, were singing and laugh- 
ing as they approached without fear. 

"Halt !" cried the Pharisees. "Children are not 
allowed to stand before their elders. You do not 
understand the Law and the Prophets. You may, 
indeed, be taken into the Kingdom by us who are 
in authority, but by yourselves you cannot enter." 

"Forbid them not !" spoke the firm voice of the 
Judge. "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. 
These children have purity and faith, and realiza- 
tion of God's presence far beyond that of many 
seven times their age. They must go before you. 
And take heed to your ways. For except ye be 
converted and become as little children, ye shall 
not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Let the 
children pass on before the proud and self- 
righteous. A little child shall lead them. The 
streets of the Heavenly City shall be full of boys 
and of girls playing in the streets thereof." 



Last First and First Last 155 

Before the men with broad phylacteries had 
recovered from their surprise, they were pushed 
aside by a great crowd of men and women. These 
people were not intentionally rude, but by sheer 
force of numbers they took possession of all the 
available space on the path to the Kingdom. 
They had Jewish faces, but their clothing was that 
of foreign lands, and they spoke neither in Hebrew 
nor Greek, but in the many strange tongues of 
every nation under heaven. 

"These," exclaimed the Pharisees, "are the Jews 
of the Dispersion. They are unfaithful to the 
Land of Promise, but dwell far away among the 
Gentiles. They have become traders and money 
changers in the far countries to which they have 
wandered, and many of them are rich. They do 
well to visit Jerusalem occasionally and offer gifts. 
They are Children of Abraham, and if they will 
sit at our feet and learn, we will teach them how 
they may purify themselves and become fit for the 
Kingdom of Heaven." 

"Hold your peace," said the Judge with some 
trace of sternness. "These people had come to 
Jerusalem to worship when the Church was new 
and needed strong men and faithful women. You 
sat in the seat of the scornful, you walked in the 
counsel of the ungodly — you even persecuted those 
who were preaching news of Salvation. But these 



156 A Modern Dreamer 

people, who had lived among the Gentiles and had 
lacked the privileges of Temple and Synagogue 
which you had enjoyed — these people heard the 
word gladly; and the first day on which the 
apostles made a public appeal three thousand were 
added to the Church. They are right to go for- 
ward. They belong at the front." 

Before the Scribes and Pharisees had been able 
to collect their thoughts, there came another mul- 
titude of people, men and women and children. 
They were like the Jews in face and dress, and yet 
they were not Jews. 

"Hold! hold!" cried the Pharisees, while their 
faces blazed with anger. "These Samaritans must 
not pollute the Holy Places. Children of Beliel! 
Offspring of demons, their breath is corruption! 
they must not enter !" 

"Stand back!" said the Judge. "When I was 
here on earth there met me, one day, ten lepers, 
at the gates of a city. I told them where to go 
and what to do that they might be cleansed. And 
they were cleansed. A common misfortune had 
caused them to forget their race prejudices, so 
one of them was a Samaritan, and the Samaritan 
was the only one of the ten that came back to 
thank me. Once I journeyed through Samaria, 
and at noon I sat by Jacob's Well, waiting for mj^ 
disciples who had gone to purchase food; and 



Last First and First Last 157 

there came to the well a sinful Samaritan Woman. 
We talked together a few moments, and she gave 
up her wicked ways, drank the Water of Life, and 
ran eagerly to offer testimony to her friends and 
neighbors. Once there was a Samaritan journey- 
ing on the Jericho Road, and he found a man who 
had been robbed and wounded. Your holy men, 
your Priests and Levites, had passed by on the 
other side, leaving the poor man to die. But this 
Samaritan dressed his wounds and took him to 
a place of safety. When the disciples first began 
to preach, they were persecuted and driven out of 
Jerusalem, but some of them found a warm wel- 
come in Samaria, and many of the Samaritans 
believed. They deserve their place in the Kingdom 
before you. Stand back, and let them pass !" 

After the Samaritans there marched a solitary 
figure whose every movement indicated discipline 
and authority. He was one who knew how to obey 
and how to command. He was tall, broad- 
shouldered, and muscular; he had the high fore- 
head, the keen, sharp features and military bear- 
ing of aristocracy. All in all, he was a noble 
figure. But oh! he carried the pagan insignia of 
hated Rome. The image of an eagle was on his 
helmet, the figure of a wolf upon his sword hilt. 
The Pharisees sprang forward with fierce passion. 

"Stop him !" they cried. "He is a heathen ! He 



158 A Modern Dreamer 

is carrying images into the Holy Place! God's 
Kingdom will be defiled!" 

"That man," replied the Judge, "is Cornelius. 
Even before he heard of the Gospel he was honest 
and upright, a devout man who feared God with 
all his house, gave much alms to the poor, and 
built a synagogue for those who desired instruc- 
tion and opportunity for worship, while you were 
devouring widow's houses and for a pretence 
making long prayers. As soon as the Spirit 
called him, he was obedient, and went to Peter to 
learn the Way of Salvation in my Name. Wait! 
he goes before you into the Kingdom." 

After him came crowds of Greeks and Romans, 
and men of other nations — even from far-away 
Spain. Again the Jewish leaders protested, but 
the Judge was firm. 

"You would not receive my message," he said. 
"You judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, 
and my preachers turned to the Gentiles ; the Gen- 
tiles gladly received the Word, and the Spirit 
came upon them and they were healed. Now you 
must wait while they enter the Kingdom." 

While these men who considered themselves the 
spiritual aristocracy of the world were trying to 
comprehend the new revelation concerning the 
Divine standard of religious greatness, they saw 
approaching a company of men and women whose 



Last First and First Last 159 

presence near the entrance to the Kingdom filled 
their hearts with wonder, anger, dismay, horror. 
They threw themselves upon the earth, rent their 
clothes, and rubbed their faces in the dust. 

"Oh ! save us ! save us from this defilement !" 
they cried. "These are the Publicans, the men 
who served, for gain, the pagan Romans, our 
oppressors ; the men who betrayed their own peo- 
ple and sold us to the heathen. And these are the 
women — their presence would defile a prophet. 
To name their sin with our lips would destroy our 
sanctity. Spare us ! spare us ! O Lord, spare us 
this last, this most horrible debasement!" 

"Remove yourselves from the pathway!" com- 
manded the Judge sternly, almost harshly. 
"Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and 
harlots go into the Kingdom before you." 

The Dreamer wondered, and longed to know 
what could be the great sin of those Scribes and 
Pharisees, that they should endure such humilia- 
tion. This appeared to be their sins: Self- 
righteousness, self-satisfaction, overestimate of 
their own goodness, failure to realize their own 
unworthiness, lack of appreciation for others' 
goodness, lack of sympathy for others' faults, 
unwillingness to see the sinful forgiven, lack of 
that purity and sweetness of soul that causes the 



160 A Modern Dreamer 

angels to rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. 
Because of these sins the Publicans and harlots go 
into the Kingdom before them. 

The Dreamer prayed : "O father, if to-day there 
be such among thy worshipers whom I account 
my friends, spare me the knowledge. But if there 
be such faults within my own heart, teach me to 
know my sin, and bring me to repentance." 



My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; 
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. 

— Shakespeare, 



THE NAKED SOUL 



Chapter XVIII 
THE NAKED SOUL 

The Dreamer saw the sinful millions of men — 
sinful, for no heart was perfectly clean ; yet some 
were pure — much like the heart of the Master. 
Some were in the gall of bitterness and the bonds 
of iniquity. They were like the troubled sea whose 
waters cast up mire and dirt. But the greater 
part of their lives were hidden from human vision. 
Few of their deeds — much less their thoughts — 
were known to the eyes of the world. No man 
could tell how much each brother's sin was in- 
heritance or circumstances or deliberate choice 
of evil. But God knew. To whom much was 
given, of him much will be required. 

Each man was a unit, a unity. The whole per- 
sonality of the man was in every part of him, yet 
each man had a body, and this body would not 
last forever ; it would die, and leave the Spirit to 
live on and on without the physical. Some sins 
were sins of the body, like gluttony, drunkenness 
and licentiousness, that had come through uncon- 
trolled desires of the flesh, sins that are possible 
only when the body is living. Sins of the spirit 
are sins that may continue after the body is dead. 



164 A Modern Dreamer 

These are sins of self-worship, self-exaltation, of 
putting oneself above the Moral Law, sins which 
spring from willful determination to trample upon 
the rights of others, if that is necessary to obtain 
what is demanded, sins of ambition, hatred, envy, 
unkindness, lack of sympathy, lack of mercy, and 
many others. 

The Dreamer saw all this vast multitude of the 
sinful millions of men and women come together 
in answer to the Great Call. They were a motley 
multitude : the wise, the weak, the wealthy, the 
wicked and the weary, the rulers, the leaders, the 
scholars, the workers, the thinkers, the beggars. 
As a rule, their dress indicated something of their 
state and condition in life. Each dressed his part, 
and looked his part. 

The Great Call sounded again, and their cloth- 
ing was taken from them. The Crown was torn 
from the king, the judge gave up his robe, my 
lady's diamonds were snatched away, those that 
loved beautiful and costly raiment lost their silks, 
their embroideries, and their jewels. They lost, 
too, the atmosphere of pride or humility ; lost con- 
sciousness of power or self-distrust, the odor of 
sanctity, or the recklessness which characterized 
some of them during the earthly life ; that shell of 
power, or wisdom, or reputation, or holiness, in 



The Naked Soul 165 

which they were wont to protect themselves and 
feel themselves protected as in a fortress. 

Then in answer to the Last Great Call their 
bodies fell from them, and each spirit stood un- 
defended and unhidden before the Eyes of God, — 
and of all other living beings in the Universe. 
The clothes that had covered their bodies had 
sometimes been a hindrance to free motion, some- 
times a burden to carry, sometimes a medium of 
contagion that brought wasting disease. But, 
for the most part, clothes were helpful; they 
covered deformity, and were a protection from 
blows and briars and thorns, rain and cold. The 
Dreamer saw that what the clothing had been to 
the body, the body had been to the Spirit. It had 
sometimes been a medium of temptation, a leading 
and impelling toward destructive sin; but, gen- 
erally, it had been a protection, a cloak, a veil, to 
hide the soul from the world, and an armor which 
received some of earth's buffeting that might other- 
wise have bruised the Spirit. 

When the Last Great Call sounded, all the souls 
stood naked, unprotected, unconcealed, stripped 
of all ornament and regalia, stripped of all au- 
thority and rank and power, stripped even of 
this body of flesh, — naked in the eye of God, 
and of all the world. 

No picture of Doom, imagined by poet or 



166 A Modern Dreamer 

painter, ever equaled the simple thought of a soul 
naked before God, — and all the Universe. 

There were some souls that had within them 
that sustaining power which comes from the at- 
tainment of a Christlike character. But every 
soul that had not the Christ character within it- 
self shivered in the cold breath of eternity, as an 
unclothed body shivers in the chill of midnight. 



**This I have read in a book," he said, "and that was 

told to me ; 
And this I have thought that another man thought of 

a Prince in Muscovy." 

"Ye have read, ye have heard, ye have thought/' he 
said, "and the tale has yet to run: 

By the worth of the body that once ye had, give an- 
swer, — ^What ha' ye done?" 

— Kipling, 



THE DREAM ETERNAL 



Chapter XIX 
THE DREAM ETERNAL 

This is the Dream of a Poet — not a poet's dream, 
but a dream concerning a Poet. As seen in the 
Dream, the Poet stood high above the millions — 
aye, the billions — of many lands and of successive 
generations. He could look into the Heart of 
the human heart, the Soul of the human soul. He 
could interpret the activities of manly lives, the 
hopes of aspiring men and women, and their pas- 
sions, controlled and uncontrolled. He could 
paint what he saw and what he realized with lines 
and tints so lifelike that the creatures of his 
poetic fancy appear, to those that study them, 
more vivid and more human than the people we 
meet on the common highway of daily life. 

While the Poet lived, his circle of friends was 
not large. He spent his declining years quietly in 
the sleepy town of his birth, and was honored by 
being buried in the village church — not because he 
was a poet, but because he had been a public- 
spirited citizen. The visitor in that church still 
spells out the quaint rhyme cut in that stone over 
his grave, three hundred years ago — supposed to 
have been composed by himself. But the literary 



170 A Modern Dreamer 

critics sneer at the suggestion. One has recently 
written of it as, "This wretched doggerel over the 
world's greatest poet." But the wise critic must 
not forget that endurance and universal interest 
are the highest tests of literary excellency. Who 
knows what is written over the grave of Gladstone 
or Tennyson, of Washington or Lincoln or Emer- 
son? Very few. For every one who knows the 
epitaph of any other great man there are prob- 
ably a hundred who know that on the grave of 
Shakespeare is carved in stone, "Curst be he that 
moves my bones." 

As the fame of this artist grew from generation 
to generation, and as the people longed more and 
more to have the dust of their greatest poet placed 
beside the other honored heroes of English history 
in Westminster Abbey, the words of his epitaph 
became a hindrance. The modern mind may not 
be superstitious, but the thought of a dead man's 
curse still produces an unpleasant shiver. Finally, 
it was decided to abandon the hope of moving the 
body of Shakespeare, and to set up instead a 
worthy memorial in the Poet's Corner of the 
"Great Minster Transept." 

Then those in authority sought for appropriate 
words to place above his image. They tried to 
select something from his many immortal sayings 
which, in conception and expression, would be fully 



The Dream Eternal 171 

worthy of the "Myriad-minded," something which 
would be, also, universal; something which would 
make a chord vibrate in the heart of him who read, 
whatever might be his race, rank, or religion; 
something which would voice the experience of the 
collective human soul. Finally, this was selected: 

"The cloud-capp'd towers^ the gorgeous palaces^ 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded. 
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on, and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep." 

The Dreamer in his imagination retraced the 
steps he had taken in earlier life, and stood in the 
magnificent Abbey, before the Shakespeare Memo- 
rial, reading those burning words, again and 
again. He remembered the wonders of human 
thought, the magnificence of earthly building, the 
glory of man's accomplishment ; he thought of the 
fruitful earth, the majestic sun, the attendant 
planets, the possibilities suggested by the twinkling 
of the dim and distant stars. Tears fell upon the 
foot-worn stones beneath as he was told by the 
myriad-minded Master of poetic thought that all 
these must dissolve and leave not a rack behind. 



172 A Modern Dreamer 

In that hour the Dreamer thanked his God 
that in the archives of memory he had stored 
the words of Paul the Apostle; words as high 
above those of the world's greatest secular poet 
as the stars of heaven are above the wavering, 
uncertain image of themselves in the water be- 
neath : 

"Though our outward raan perish 

Yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 

''While we look not at the things which are seen^ 
But at the things which are not seen. 

*Tor the things which are seen are temporal; 
But the things which are not seen are eternal. 

"For we know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle were dissolved, 

We have a building of God, 

An house not made with hands. 

Eternal in the heavens.'' 

The Dreamer sees the world of Shakespeare's 
day — ^the great Globe itself, and all which it in- 
herit, and he sees that the world of to-day is built 
upon the ruins of the past, and is moving to the 
same destiny. In the future, as he looks forward, 
he sees one vast grave, in which are laid already 
the crumbling ruins of Babylon and Egypt and 



The Dream Eternal 173 

Ancient Rome with all their power and wealth and 
wisdom. And all the glories of earth are being 
placed there, one by one. Earth's heroes and 
earth's philosophers and earth's workers and 
earth's rulers go thitherward. Their memory 
flits, like a ghostly shadow, around their former 
homes for a few generations ; then memory, too, is 
buried in the mighty grave. And all they have 
invented and constructed is put there, by and by. 
All the beauties of earth must go there ; all the 
barns full of much goods laid up for many years 
turn to dust ; the wealth of ages becomes cankered 
and moth-eaten, all our machinery broken and 
rusted. Not only the dungeons built by tyranny, 
but also hospitals reared by Christlike piety must 
go down there. And by and by the earth itself 
and sister stars — for planets die — and the old 
father Sun — for suns burn out — must be laid in 
the nameless grave. Above it is no monument. 
The grave itself is buried. 

But look again ! Above this entombed oblivion 
there rises a living form of light and beauty, of 
glory and majesty ! That lofty brow shows marks 
where once had been a crown of thorns. Those 
hands that bear the scepter of power are scarred 
with signs of earthly pain. He is of earth and not 
of earth. Out of earthly suffering and human 
sorrow and what the world calls death and burial, 



174 A Modern Dreamer 

He comes, triumphant, living, eternal! This is 
the Resurrection. As the Dreamer's eyes become 
accustomed to the brightness of this Presence, he 
sees that the Shining One is not alone. Out of the 
same grave comes He who gave himself and those 
for whom He was given. "Christ the first fruits, 
after they that are his at his appearing." And 
behold ! there is a vast multitude which no man can 
number. This, too, is the Resurrection. 

And this Mighty One, He of the wounded hands 
and pierced side and majestic brow on which ap- 
pear the marks of earthly thorns, this eternal, 
living and life-giving One speaks. Listen ! 

"I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that 
believeth on me, though he were dead yet shall he 
live; and he that liveth and believeth on me shall 
never die. 

"Believest thou this.?" 



Our voices took a higher range; 

Once more we sang: *'They do not die 
Nor lose their mortal sympathy, 

Nor change to us, although they change; 

Rapt from the fickle and the frail 
With gathered power, yet the same, 
Pierces the keen seraphic flame 

From orb to orb, from veil to veil." 



The Dream Eternal 175 

Rise, happy morn, rise, holy morn. 

Draw forth the cheerful day from night: 
O Father, touch the east, and light 

The light that shone when Hope was born. 

— Tennyson, 



NIAGARA BY DREAM LIGHT 



Chaptee XX 
NIAGARA BY DREAM LIGHT 

We looked and listened, while the passing moon, 
a figure of an earthly fortune, shone a moment 
clear; then, fortune-like, it fled behind a cloud, 
and all was dark around. And then a gentle 
zephyr touched our cheeks, as balmy, warm and 
soft as those which fan the orange groves in far-off 
classic isles. Again a change — a raw and icy 
breeze blew down the stream; and, with a chill, 
we drew our cloaks the closer round our shivering 
forms. Down came the rain, the cold and cruel 
rain, and drove us to the shelter of a roof. And 
through it all — ^light, darkness, warmth and cold 
and pelting rain — ^we heard the ceaseless roar and 
whir and boom of old Niagara. 

So has it been for countless ages past, since 
savage man, or savage beast, first stood, at gaze, 
before its awful majesty. So will it be for un- 
known years to come. It changes not, but ever 
rushes on, a restless, sleepless, heartless, ruthless 
flood. 

We listened, spellbound, till a colder chill than 
that which comes from ice blocks 'neath the falls 



180 A Modern Dreamer 

blew o'er my soul ; a weight fell on my heart, like 
many waters falling on the rocks. 

I am one drop in Life's Niagara. 

The eddy yonder, with its whirl and rush, that 
is the city where my life is lost. The currents, 
flowing on, some turning back, they are the na- 
tions of the earth; and all, it is the onward rush 
of Life and Time. I am a single drop borne down 
the stream; I sink — I rise — what matters it? 
Lost, lost, in either case. Perchance, like floating 
mist, I mount and soar above the eager crowd; 
perchance the light of truth shines through me till 
I help to form a rainbow, bright and clear — 'tis 
but a moment — I am swept away, I know not 
where, and never seen again. 

But 3^et this flood, this proud and raging flood, 
is wholly lost within vast Ocean's depths; and 
what is ocean to the might of Him whose hand 
and thought control stars, moon and sun? A 
drop, a flood, an ocean — 'tis the same, the same 
to Him. 

No, it is not the same. A tear drop, glistening 
on the cheek of Him whose voice in Bethany 
brought the dead to life, has more of hope, for 
mankind, sick with sin, is higher, grander, in the 
sight of God, than all the waters rushing down 
these steeps, since the first floods whirled o'er the 
new-made rocks, to seek the bosom of Ontario. 



Niagara hy Dream Light 181 

Su'blimer yet! Were oceans vaster far than those 
which span our globe from pole to pole, to pour 
their floods from heights above the clouds, and 
were ten thousand suns to light their mists with 
splendor from on high, the rainbow formed would 
be as star to sun, compared with that reflected 
from the tears of Him who said, "I am the resur- 
rection and the life." 

I am a drop, a single drop, no more ; yes, more 
— a child of God ; and when I sink, or when I rise. 
His eye is watching me, is guarding me with tender, 
ceaseless care, as though I were my Father's only 
child. 



All that live must die. 
Passing through nature to eternity. 

— Shakespeare, 



THEOPHANY 



Chapter XXI 
THEOPHANY 

Come thou to me, O God, on blessing bent, as 
thou didst come to greet thy friend of yore ; abide 
— as thoug'h a guest 'neath patriarch's tent — 
within my door. 

Come thou! Jehovah! come with words that 
burn as burned the fiery cloud on Sinai's crest; 
teach me the good from evil to discern, to choose 
the best. 

Come, still small Voice, and fill the list'ning 
night ; make crowded day less bright than Christ 
within ; Give me a vision ! Lead me to thy Light ! 
Free me from sin ! 

Oh! rescue me! stretch thou to me those hands 
pierced by the nails of earthly guilt and hate! 
My soul is snared ; break thou the sinful bands, ere 
'tis too late. 

Thou art my Friend; for thou dost brave the 
storms to search where I, a wayward wanderer, 
roam. For me, thy brow is torn with desert 
thorns ; — with Thee is home. 

Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. 

— Elisha. 



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